Potential
by Redundantchosen1
Summary: Jaune never got any training to become a huntsman. Vale isn't as great as he thought it would be, and the initiation to Beacon is only a month away. Down to only enough lien to eat for the rest of his duration in Vale, the young blonde goes out for a nearby food joint. From there, Jaune's life just spirals into madness.
1. First Meeting

Jaune sighed dejectedly as he stepped through the streets of Vale. The stars shone overhead, along with the shattered moon. The transcripts he had submitted had gotten him into Beacon, and all he had to do was pass the initiation next month. It couldn't be that hard. So what if he had no training, education, or anything even remotely related to huntsmen. He would prove his family that he was ready.

Unfortunately, he had underestimated how much life was willing to bring a man down. As soon as he had arrived in Vale, he had nearly gotten mugged, the only thing that kept his lien in his pocket was the sword hanging from his hip, one of the muggers recognizing it as a huntsman weapon, quickly scaring the others off. Then, booking a motel room for a month had been a lot more expensive that he had realized, eating up most of his funds.

Shaking his head to clear the thoughts from his mind, Jaune crossed an intersection, the crossing signal blinking lazily as he moved. He was hungry, and the only food place that wasn't takeout was quite a walk from the motel, forcing the young man to trek the city at a time he wasn't entirely comfortable with. The weight of his family sword on his hip calmed more than he felt it should have. After all, he barely knew he to swing the thing, and if he needed to use it, he was going to have to rely on the comics and video games he had invested most of his time in to show him the ropes.

Slowing as he approached the food joint he had looked up, Jaune looked around, not for any particular reason, more from a habit he had picked up during his school years, bullies teaching him to always be vigilant. Always. Not seeing anyone, the young man opened the door, the smell of food reaching his nose pleasantly. There were hardly any customers, only a lone man at the counter, tearing into his meal with zeal. From behind the counter, an employee, a man with dark blue hair, took a look at Jaune, and saw the sword at his hip, a frown on his face. "If you're coming here to eat, you're gonna need to put that with the other one."

Jaune blinked in confusion, and the employee rolled his eyes, before pointing to the left of the young man, where he saw a guandao leaning against the wall. Unhooking his sword from his belt, Jaune placed it next to the other weapon. Taking a seat close to the other customer, Jaune was handed a menu, which was more diverse in culture than he was expecting. Looking at the food, and the prices that went with them, Jaune could feel the strain it would place on his already pitiful funds.

After a solid three minutes of staring, the silence was broken form the other customer. "For the love of- Hey, Bisman, just give him my usual. I'll pay for it." At those words, Jaune turned to the man, getting a better look at him. The man was older than he first thought, the graying edges of the man's shoulder length hair and thin beard showed that he had to be at least as old as his dad, probably older. The man was lean, his skin a shade or two paler than Jaune's own. His clothes looked simple enough, with a plain white button up shirt, and black jeans, with a ring held by a twine necklace around his neck. Folded on the seat next to the man was what looked like a grey duster.

Blinking in confusion, Jaune shook his head. "Oh, no, that's fine. I can pay, just need to-"

Unfortunately, Jaune didn't get too far in his sentence. "Shut up and take the food. I've never seen you here, and new people take forever to decide on what they want. Besides," The man turned to Jaune, peering into the blonde's soul with cold, dark grey eyes. "I have a few questions about that sword of yours." Jaune gulped, fear gripping at him.

"A-alright then." Jaune wasn't sure what it was about the man that sent a chill up his spine, but he didn't like it. Roughly ten minutes later, the employee, Bisman, brought out a large plate, the food mainly consisting of fried rice, and various meats.

"Eat up, kid. It's not everyday that old Gray here decides to pay for somebody's meal." Bisman let out a snort, apparently finding some amusement in the situation. As the smell of the food hit Jaune, he felt his stomach growl, and his mouth start to salivate. With a quick thanks to the old man, the blonde began to eat as if it was the first time he'd seen anything edible in a week.

"This is amazing!" Jaune exclaimed between mouthfuls, shoveling forkful after forkful into his mouth. More than once he nearly choked, needing to swallow the water that had come with the food, which earned an eye roll from both men. Unfortunately, Jaune had barely started to appreciate the flavors of his meal before it had been devoured. Once every scrap was gone, Jaune let out a sigh in satisfaction.

The old man chuckled. "Well, glad to see you liked it. If you didn't, I would take that as a personal insult, and I would have had to kill you." Jaune let himself laugh nervously, unsure if the old man had actually meant it. "Well, I gave you food in your belly. I would say it's more than fair if I ask you a few questions." The young man gulped nervously, a small part of his mind wondering if he would be able to get his sword and run fast enough to get away from the man.

Fortunately, the larger part of his mind wasn't stupid enough to take that chance. "Alright. What do you wanna know?"

The man gave Jaune a grin. "Well, first thing's first. Just what exactly are _you_ doing with it, and not you're dad? He give the sword to you?" Letting out a snort, the man let himself answer one of the questions. "No, good ol' Nick would have said something about the next Arc huntsman. So, what, you're some kind of runaway?"

Jaune could feel terror grip at him, and sweat begin to collect at his palms. Swallowing thickly, he opened his mouth. "Uh, well, you see, the funny thing about that... It's, well-"

Bisman let out a sigh, cutting Jaune's sentence early, much to the blonde's relief. "Jeez, Grayson, calm down will ya? You're gonna scare the kid to death at this rate."

Chuckling darkly, the old man, Grayson, kept his eyes on Jaune, like a predator that was toying with its prey. "Yeah? Well maybe that's what I'm going for. Maybe he's too much of a coward to come up with a good lie on the spot like this, and maybe he'll just try to run."

Those words were the straw that broke the camel's back. Turning swiftly, another skill acquired from bullies, Jaune began to run like a man possessed. He took three steps before he felt a hand on the back of his hoodie, his feet being thrown out from under him, and gagging from the force his neckline had abruptly put onto his neck. Landing on his back, Jaune let out a whimper as he looked up, to find Grayson standing over him, his arms folded across his chest. Scared out of his mind, the young man let the first thing that came to his mind out of his mouth. "Please don't hurt me."

Grayson sighed and shook his head. "Listen, kid, I"m not going to hurt you. At least, not if you just cooperate, and talk." The old man unfolded his arms, and reached out, silently offering a bit of help getting up.

Jaune took the hand quickly, both out of fear of what would happen if he didn't, as well as genuinely needing the hand, being a tad disoriented from his fall. "Thanks. I guess." Jaune walked to his previous seat, and took his spot, while Grayson simply turned from his position, standing a few feet away from the young man. "Okay, what do you want to know?"

Letting out another sigh, Grayson walked to his duster, searching through the article of clothing until he had pulled out a canteen. Unscrewing the lid, the old man began to drink from the canteen. And drink. And drink.

Once Grayson had downed the entire canteen in a single go, he set it down, and let out a burp that had lasted a staggering seven seconds. Bisman waved the air in front of his nose, face scrunched. "Good gods, Grayson. What the hell did you put in there?"

The old man looked up thoughtfully, and tapped a finger against his chin. "Well, Glynda recommended this new tea the other day, and I managed to pick some up. It didn't smell so great, but it tastes okay enough. A little too bitter for my palette, but that's for another time. For now," Grayson turned his attention to Jaune, who had been silent through the exchange. "Questions. First off; does your family even know you're here? Left a little note home? Because for some reason, Nick hadn't said a thing about this. So, either he never expected you to even get close to this far, or he trusts you on this whole mess. Could go either way, really."

Feeling his face flush with shame, the blonde let out a tortured sigh. "No, I just took the sword, the money I managed to save up, and left. No note, no call, nothing. I haven't even heard from my family for a few weeks."

Grayson stroked his meager beard, looking at Jaune as if examining a puzzle. "Well, that makes things a lot harder. Can't exactly just call ol' Nick and tell him his son is in Vale. Second question; what are you even here for? I don't exactly have enough info to get a good guess going."

Jaune shook his head. "I'm here for Beacon." At this, Grayson blinked, then began to chuckle, which escalated into cackles of laughter. For a bit, the old man just laughed. After a full minute, Jaune snapped. "I'm serious!"

Chuckling still, Grayson nodded. "Oh, heh, I know, hehehe, it's just... Well, you're not exactly Beacon material. I don't mean to in an insulting way, it's just a fact. I mean, all I really did to stop you from running was grab your hoodie, and you went down like a sack of bricks. Huntsmen need to be able to take actual hits. The kind that would kill normal people."

Jaune's eyes widened. "Wait, what? How? What kind of armor do you have to wear to be able to tank that kind of hit?"

Grayson let out a snort. "Damn kid, you really don't have what it takes if you don't know the answer to that." A moment passed, then Grayson blinked, looked back to the young blonde man, contemplating. Jaune didn't like the way he was being stared at, like some piece of meat. Finally, after two or three minutes, Grayson snapped his fingers, and slapped his palm onto the counter, which left an imprint the exact shape as his hand. Looking at it, Grayson gave a sigh. "Look, Bisman, I'll pay for that, just don't say anything, I just made a decision."

The blue haired man just shook his head and sighed, staying silent. Jaune was less so. "Uh, if you don't mind me asking, but what was that just now?"

Grayson grinned. "I'm sorry for this, but I'm going to answer that question with another question. Exactly how much training have you had to be so confident about going to Beacon?"

The blonde blinked, then a look of fear and nervousness shot across his features. "Uh, well, y'know, I'm so trained, like you wouldn't even believe."

The old man's grin inched ever wider. "Oh, I think I have a solution to your problem."

Jaune held up a finger, to correct the man. "Uh, don't you mean 'our' problems?"

"Nope, I mean _your _problem, because I have nothing to lose from this situation. But, on to my decision." Grayson clasped his hands together, his grin looking more and more maniacal. "You see, good young Jaune Arc, it's simple. I'm going to train you to be ready for Beacon in a single month."

Jaune blinked once. Then again. Then once more. "I'm sorry. It sounded like you said you were going to train me, could you tell me what you actually said?"

The grin never left Grayson's face. "I'm going to train you to be Beacon-ready. In a month. After all, you're an Arc, and Arcs are warriors. You should be fine." Grayson slapped an arm around Jaune's shoulders. "Oh, this is going to be the start of something beautiful. Or tragic. Definitely one of those two." Releasing Jaune, the old man grabbed the duster from the seat, and put it on with a smooth, practiced motion. Digging through his pockets, Grayson pulled out his wallet, and extracted a lot of lien, tossing it to Bisman. "There, that should cover the food, and most of the counter top. And before you say anything, don't worry. The kid is in safe hands." Moving toward the entrance, Grayson grabbed the guandao, and strapped it to his back. He then picked up Crocea Mors, and tossed it to Jaune, who caught it just in time. "C'mon kid. We have places to see, people to meet, the whole shebang." The grin, which had reached Cheshire levels, was planted firmly as Grayson opened the door, and strode out into the night.

Jaune could only fasten the ancestral sword to his belt as he rushed to catch up to the old huntsman. "Uh, excuse me! Can you slow down? Where are we even going?!"

Grayson turned on his heel, stopping abruptly, but thanks to Jaune's slow movement, the young blonde managed to stop himself before crashing into the huntsman. "Tell me, young Arc, what's the most illegal thing you've done? And be honest with me. I'll know if you're lying. You're bad at it."

Blushing, Jaune rubbed at the back of his neck. "Uh, you see, I might have, maybe, kind, sorta, y'know... Forged the transcripts I sent to Beacon..."

The silence than fell over the dark street, lit only by the lights of nearby businesses and homes, was nearly tangible. After a solid minute, Grayson spoke up. "You know, I'd congratulate you, but that would be like spitting in Ozpin's face. If you're sending fake documents, they're not letting that slide by undetected." Gone was the previous mischief, replaced by a solemn curiosity. "Hm. And you haven't gotten any letter or anything of the sort declining your entrance." A quick shake of the head from Jaune put a frown on Grayson's face. "Alright. Where'd you get those transcripts anyway? Some back alley thug?"

Jaune scratched his cheek sheepishly. "Well, I didn't really get a name from the guy, but he was really flamboyant, had his hair covering one of his eyes, and dressed pretty well for a criminal."

Apparently that was more than enough information to come to a conclusion he hadn't hoped for, because the groan Grayson let out could have been in a zombie flick. "Great. What did he charge? An arm and a leg?"

"Actually, he called it an investment, and said it was free." It was a bit strange thinking back on it, but at the time Jaune thought nothing aside of how lucky he had been.

The old huntsman's eyes widened, and he shouted out, "He _what_?!"

Wincing, Jaune nodded. "Yeah, not really sure what he meant by that, but it was a pretty good deal."

Slapping his forehead, Grayson dragged the hand down his face. "Right. Sure. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. So, you're not so innocent then. Good, because we're going to an underground fight ring, and I'm going to sign you up. Get ready, because they are going to tear you apart."

The blonde's eyes widened. "WHAT?!" The sound following was definitely not the whimpering of a child, despite any statements to the contrary Grayson would later give.

"Wow, didn't think people could get that high pitched." Rubbing at an ear, Grayson scowled at Jaune. "Anyway, yeah. Fight club, but there aren't any rules keeping anyone from talking about it. It's actually doing the economy some wonders with how much it's raking in. So, I'm signing you up, and betting everything I have in my pocket on you, so don't lose."

"What?! Why would you bet on me?! Why are you condoning this?! Aren't you supposed to stop this sort of thing?!"

Letting a smile on his face, Grayson answered Jaune's questions in order. "Fight club. You have an ace up your sleeve. Because I'm not some naive kid thinking all crime is bad. And finally, my job is actually keeping people safe from Grimm, although I focus more on the 'keep people safe' part." Waving off any objections, Grayson pressed on. "So yeah, we're going to a place I used to go to _a lot_ when I was younger. Not a good time in my life, I'll tell you that much for free. Now," The huntsman grabbed Jaune by his arm, and began to drag him along, not even noticing the flailing and attempts at escape from the young man. "Let's get going. There's money to be made, secrets to reveal, and asses to kick. Maybe not that last one, but two out of three ain't bad." Jaune whimpered.

* * *

If anyone had told Jaune in the past that fight clubs were actually a lot more organized than he had thought, he would have asked how they knew that, then told them they were crazy. But lo and behold, there was no crowd cheering for blood, no concrete cellars and single light bulbs, instead a rather nice cage in the middle of a large empty room. There were only about a couple dozen people present, all of which had nicer clothing than Jaune could have dreamed of owning. As Grayson led the blonde lad through the building, Jaune couldn't help but notice how confident in direction the old man was. He supposed that made sense, since Grayson had commented how frequently he came here when he was younger.

"Alright, so, luckily, we're the last match of the night, and considering that, there won't be as many people around, the main event's gone, and people don't really care about the fights after the hyped match. Now, about that ace I mentioned earlier." Opening a door, Grayson ushered Jaune inside. "So, you asked earlier about armor taking hits from Grimm. There isn't. At least, not by itself." Smirking, Grayson held up a hand, which then glowed brightly, with a dark bluish tint. "But, if you can channel some aura into it, it can help."

Jaune watched, amazed by the light coming from the old man. "Aura?"

Rolling his eyes, Grayson nodded. "Aura. It's what keeps hunters alive. We can do a whole lot with it, if we have the control, aura needed, and drive needed. But right now, we're going to focus on defense, making sure you can take a hit." Reaching out the glowing hand, Grayson placed it atop of Jaune's head, and the young man felt something well up inside of him.

"Uh, what's happening right now?" There was concern, but the blonde was sure Grayson knew what he was doing.

"Right now, I'm going to unlock your aura." Clearing his throat, Grayson began to speak, his voice clearer than Jaune had ever heard before. "For it is in understanding that we achieve immortality. Through this we become a paragon of self and morality to rise above all. Infinite in wisdom and unbound by doubt, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, guide thee."

The moment the words left Grayson's mouth, Jaune felt it. It wasn't anything he could describe exactly, but he could try. "This... It felt like I just had a star born inside of my body." Letting out a laugh, Jaune turned his attention to Grayson. "Thanks."

Grayson didn't hear, too stunned by the amount of aura he had just unlocked. Letting out a low whistle, the huntsman shook his head slowly. "You know, I went on a few missions with ol' Nick, and he had a lot of aura, but _you_ have a metric shit ton of the stuff." Shaking his had to clear his thoughts, Grayson narrowed his eyes, and his tone become all business. "Alright kid, we don't have long, so here's the basics. This stuff is mainly for defense, and you have to call it out when you want it out, otherwise you're getting your teeth smashed in. Since you just got it, we can't be sure exactly your instinctual control is, so think of it as riding a bike, gotta learn before you never forget. Call it out real quick, if you can." A bright white light suddenly flashed throughout the room, blinding both men inside. "Holy shit! Alright, you might have a bit more control than I thought. Okay, so just making sure you know this before hand, but your opponent also has aura. I can tell you for free that it's going to be a lot less than yours though, so you really only need to wear his aura down before going for the kill. Figuratively, this is one of those fight clubs." Rubbing his eyes, vision was slowly brought back to Grayson. Unfortunately, Jaune wasn't as well off. He was doubled over, his eyes shut, hands closed tightly over them. Sighing, Grayson pointed out another of aura's uses. "Another thing aura can do is heal minor injuries. Including temporary blindness. The kind you have right now. Just focus on your eyes getting better, and the aura will do the rest." Hearing this, Jaune nodded, and began to focus on the healing of his eyes, the aura flowing through them, a sensation that startled Jaune at first. Opening his eyes slowly, he found that he could see again, with a grinning Grayson the first thing he saw. "Good. Make sure to not get too hurt, aura isn't a cure-all. Lose a tooth, finger, limb, anything like that, and it's gone forever. Unless you can afford a good Atlas prosthetic. You got all that? Summarize real quick for me, kid."

Nodding to himself, Jaune counted off the uses of aura. "It's mainly for defense, the guy I'm fighting has aura too, and aura can help heal some small stuff."

Grayson nodded, a small smile playing at his face. "Good. Now, I'm gonna show you a few punches and kicks. Make sure you know how to throw a proper punch before I throw you to the wolves." Jaune's expression turned from excited to afraid faster than Grayson had thought possible. "Oh don't worry, I'm not gonna break any of your bones. See? Who ever said that crime and illegal activity can't be beneficial?"


	2. First Fight

Jaune rolled his shoulders as he stepped into the cage, his hoodie and shirt gone, showing the meager crowd his thin, gangling torso. He would have normally felt a bit more self-conscious about his body being on display like it was, but he was focused on the person across from him. The man entering the cage was big, well muscled, and seemed to be much more confident than the young blonde could ever hope to be. From outside the cage, Grayson yelled encouragements to Jaune, "Remember what I showed you, Jaune: One, two, one two, hit and run! Arcs are _warriors_!"

Jaune nodded, feeling the adrenaline begin to pump through his veins. Right, warriors. He was a warrior, he just never had a chance to prove it. "I can do this..." Putting up his hands in front of his face as Grayson showed him, hopped on the balls of his feet, and listened for the signal that would start the match. "I can do this." The blonde's mutter had gained a bit more confidence, which he couldn't help but feel a bit ironic. After hearing it all the time from his dad, just hearing it once from somebody he had never met before had resonated with him so much more than he could have imagined.

Static filled the room, before the booming echo of a loudspeaker blasting music reverberated throughout. The music soon faded to a more manageable level, set to the background as a charismatic voiced boomed out. "Ladies and gentlemen! For tonight's final match, we have two rookies in the cage! In one corner, we have the brute of his people, Ivan Zlato!" The crowd of a dozen or so people clapped, with only one cheering. "And in the other corner, we have a brand new face! Let's hope it doesn't get too damaged, right?" Some chuckles from the crowd. "Here he is; Jaune Arc!" There were a few claps, then nothing but silence. But the young man couldn't bring himself to care. The people weren't important. The only person important right now was Ivan, the man rotating his arms across from him. "To remind both contenders of the rules: As long as it doesn't kill, anything goes! Eye gouges, low blows, biting, use whatever you can to be the last man standing!" That sent the crowd roaring, clapping and stomping their feet on the floor.

From the side of the cage, Grayson shouted over the crowd. "Just stay calm, kid, stay calm and wear him down! Wear him down and hit when you can!" With those words spoken, the loudspeaker played stock sound of a bell being rung, Jaune knowing instinctively that it was time. Grayson decided to throw in some last words of encouragement. "Fuck him up, kid!"

Jaune turned his focus to Ivan, who was smirking, sizing the blonde up, not looking very impressed. "Child, I do not want to fight you. It would be better for everyone if you just forfeit." Jaune's answer to the man's offer was to tense his muscles, and take a step forward. The man shook his head, and walked toward Jaune with no hesitation or caution. "Very well."

The blonde stepped back from the approaching man. For the first time in his life, he wasn't turning his back on a fight. Ivan kept approaching, and Jaune knew he couldn't back up forever, so he rushed forward, hoping to catch the larger man by surprise. It worked for all of two seconds, before Ivan reached a fist high above his head, and brought it down at Jaune, catching the young man in his left shoulder. Thanks to his newly unlocked aura, the blow would, at most, leave a bruise. Unfortunately, it did nothing to keep the pain from reaching Jaune's brain. Jerking back, the blonde clutched at his shoulder, before remembering the fight, and began to backpedal as best he could away from Ivan.

The large man stayed where he was, staring at Jaune, while shaking the hand he had struck the blonde with. Maybe Ivan hadn't been using his aura when hitting Jaune, and had brought unprotected flesh against the force that Jaune had at his command. "Interesting, child. Very interesting." Ivan brought his hands up, in a similar defensive stand that Jaune was in. "Let us see who has the stronger soul."

Jaune didn't answer, not really sure what the large man was talking about. As he inched closer, he could see that Ivan's defense was wider than Jaune's, likely due to his size. Inching forward, the blonde threw out a few sloppy jabs, trying to gauge the large man's reaction time. Unfortunately for Jaune, Ivan was faster than he looked, and managed to grab the young man's wrist at the third jab, and brought Jaune in for a clothesline, knocking Jaune off of his feet, and down onto the floor of the cage. Shaking away the stars, the young blonde yelped, and barely managed to roll out of the way of Ivan's incoming boot.

Jaune kept rolling until he was far enough from Ivan that he could get to his feet without getting another face full of fist. Bringing his guard up, Jaune felt a little dizzy, but that was expected with the amount of rolling he had just done. Shaking it off, Jaune decided to be on the offensive for once. Rushing forward, the blonde swung at Ivan's head, hoping to catch him in the chin. Ivan caught the punch, and Jaune braced for another clothesline.

It never came. Instead, the larger man hoisted Jaune into the air, and proceeded to land three punches into the blonde's face. Thankfully, Jaune kept his aura up, keeping any lasting damage from being done to his appearance. Unfortunately, Ivan wasn't finished. Lifting Jaune even higher, Ivan grabbed the young man's leg, and heaved him over his head, drawing roars from the crowd. Twisting and flailing, Jaune turned his face down to Ivan, and did the first thing that came to his mind. He spit in the man's eye.

Recoiling from the unexpected action, Ivan dropped Jaune onto the floor of the cage, knocking the wind out of the young man's lungs. Slowly getting up, Jaune focused on getting his breath back, hoping Ivan wasn't too angry with his dirty tactic. Turning to face his opponent, the blonde could see anger and rage on Ivan's face. The large man charged forward, forcing Jaune to move, twisting out of Ivan's reach. Ivan stopped, quickly turned, and charged again.

Jaune wasn't expecting the same thing twice, and was thrown off the ground, and carried straight into the cage wall. What little breath he had gotten back was forced right back out, causing stars to dance around Jaune's vision. Suddenly, what felt like a sledgehammer slammed into his side, jerking his body to the side. For the next two minutes, Jaune was pelted with blows to his body, too pained to bring up any defense other than his aura, which he could feel ticking away with each strike.

As the pain began to numb, Jaune couldn't help but think how disappointed Grayson must have been in him. The huntsman had only met him, and decided not only to not tell his family where he was, but had taken it upon himself to train the young runaway. And now here he was, getting his body battered, aura slowly trickling away. Even with this newfound power, and brief introduction to fighting, he had been a failure. Just like always. Clenching his fists weakly, Jaune couldn't stop the bubbling anger and frustration from getting to his head. Was he doomed to be worthless for the rest of his life? Was he really meant to just sit back in the safety of a home, behind people that were risking their lives to keep people safe?

Gritting his teeth, Jaune began to feel his aura flare up, nearly as strong as when it had been first unlocked. Eyes widening, Jaune focused on that feeling, wanting it to last enough to survive the onslaught. Or, another part of his mind suggested, to land a real hit. Feeling his aura become stronger, Jaune focused the feeling into his arm, reeled back his fist, and threw the punch for all he was worth.

Ivan didn't even react to the punch until the fist had buried itself into his stomach, eyes widening and rolling back. He stood for a few seconds, then fell back, defeated.

Blinking dumbly, Jaune barely believed what he was seeing. He had done it. He had won. He was on his way to becoming a huntsman. Throwing his hands into the air, he let out a yell that shook himself to the bone. Looking to Grayson, he saw the old man with a look of amazement, maybe even a twinge of pride, blossoming on his face.

Then Jaune saw the floor coming quickly to his face, and darkness took over in only a moment.

* * *

Jaune wasn't sure where he was as he opened his eyes at first, an unfamiliar room around him. Sitting up from the bed he had apparently been resting in, the blonde winced from the pain he was feeling in his body. It reminded him of the time he had tried to climb the top of a tree, only to fall halfway down, and had gotten a nasty scrape on his head to show for it. Shaking his head to clear the memory, Jaune looked around, finding the room to be surprisingly clean, despite being part of an illegal business.

Jaune tried to get out of bed, only for the pain to keep him confided to the piece of furniture. Frowning, he propped up the pillow to support his back, and leaned back. In his head, he wasn't sure what had happened after the punch he threw. He remembered that Ivan had gone down, but he wasn't sure if it had stayed that way. He would learn soon, if Grayson came to check on him, at any rate.

The door to the room opened, the man Jaune was just thinking about walking in. Seeing Jaune awake, the old man smiled. "Damn, awake already?"

Jaune scratched the back of his head, chuckling nervously. "Uh, yeah. How long was I out for?"

Shaking his head, the huntsman closed the door, and leaned against the wall to the left of it. "Well, it's been a few hours, so you're doing pretty alright for your first aura overexertion. Ivan is still unconscious, in case you were wondering about that."

Frowning, Jaune felt a bit guilty for not thinking of the large man that he had fought. But it was the other thing that Grayson mentioned that bothered him. "Uh, aura overexertion? What's that?"

Grayson rolled his eyes. "Well, it's pretty self explanatory. You use too much aura at once, and your body takes the strain. It usually happens to people that need their aura to fuel their semblances. It's pretty common, actually, so I wouldn't count this as a one-time deal. Just make sure you have someone to look after you, otherwise you're gonna be on the ground for a good while."

Jaune blinked. "What's a semblance?"

The huntsman's left eye twitched, and he frowned. "Okay, seriously, did Nick literally tell you _nothing _about hunters in general? There are people out on the street that know more about this than you do right now." Shaking his head, Grayson continued. "Sorry. Anyway, onto your question. I guess the best way I can describe it would be that it's like aura, but extended even further. Aura is something anyone can usually get, but semblances, are a bit harder to bring out, assuming they even find it in the first place. It's a power than mostly unique, except for a few cases, like the Schnee family. From what I can guess, you either make your aura stronger, or you use your aura to make yourself stronger. One of those two, I'd bet on it."

"Right, that brings up another question I have. What exactly _is _aura?"

Grayson groaned and rubbed at his face. "Jeez kid, really asking questions that aren't really in my field of expertise. Okay, so in a really simple way, it's your soul. It's something _everyone _has, even animals. Not Grimm though. Grimm are soulless. Maybe. I don't really know, there's no exact science for the soul, so I'm pretty sure all the experts are just making some educated guesses on the whole thing. Anyway, back on track. I only told you the basics, that aura is used for defense, but it has more uses than that, like fueling semblances. It can also beef up your attacks, kinda like what you did, but a lot less so. It also keeps us from getting completely blindsided by sneak attacks and the like, but that's if you're really in tune with it, like most professionals are. There are more, but I'm sure you'll learn from either experience, or people making fun of your for not knowing basic shit." Narrowing his eyes, Grayson looked directly into Jaune's own set. "So, you asked a couple questions, I'm starting to feel a big curious myself. First, how do you know damn near nothing about hunters, despite coming from a family of them, including your dad? I find it hard to believe that you just never heard about this. The only thing I can really think of is that Nick intentionally..." the huntsman's eyes widened a bit. "No. Don't tell me he _kept _this shit from you?"

Jaune was silent for a good minute, the only sound was the breathing from the two. "Yeah. I asked a lot about hunters, but he just kept telling me not to worry about it. That I wouldn't need to learn about any of it, because I wasn't going to become a huntsman. He never told me why, never even said anything when it came up in conversation, just kept changing the subject every single time." The blonde breathed in deeply. "Eventually I just got sick of it, and decided that if he wouldn't teach me, I would go to people that would. And Beacon is the academy for hunters in Vale. I figured if anyone could teach me, it would be them."

Grayson let out a deep breath. "So, he just kept sweeping it under the rug? Yeah, sounds pretty much like him when he didn't know how to deal with things, just hope everything ends up okay." Growling softly, the huntsman closed his eyes, frustration rolling off of him in waves. "Honestly, I'm not sure how he thought it would go. So, you took the sword and left?" Jaune nodded, feeling a lump in his throat. "Great. Well, just rest up for now."

"Uh, hey, Grayson? You think you can carry me to the motel I'm staying at?" From the quick glare he had received, it was a definite no.

"Go to sleep, Jaune."

* * *

Morning in a building that was used for activities that were less savory was a bit awkward. So was dealing with the sore muscles, something aura couldn't quite heal, since it wasn't like he could just make his body constantly feel better with aura. Moving behind Grayson, who had stayed in another room, Jaune wan't sure he liked the quiet. So, he tried to fill it. "Hey, Grayson, what happened to that money you bet on me? Since it was a tie last night, did you get it back?"

Glancing back to the blonde, Grayson smiled. "Oh, that? I didn't bet last night."

"Wait, what? But, you said that you were gonna bet all the money you had on me."

Chuckling, the old man shrugged. "Yeah, but that was for motivation, and all good gamblers know to never make a bet when you don't know what the outcome is going to be."

Jaune blinked, processing the words. "Wait, you mean you weren't sure if I was going to win or not?"

"Not really, it was Ivan's second fight, and you had a lot more aura than I thought were you going to have, so I was really tempted, but decided not to roll a set of dice that aren't weighed in my favor."

Jaune nodded, not really knowing what else to say.

The silence wasn't uncomfortable for him, and it was almost nice as the two exited the building. Grayson let out a yawn, and stretched his arms over his head. "Alright. So here's what's going to happen; we're getting on a bullhead, flying over to Beacon, and we're going for a stroll in the Emerald Forest, see how you do against some very minor Grimm."

The blonde felt his breath catch in his throat, along with a lump. "W-what? Why?! I mean, we haven't even started my training yet!"

Grayson turned to face Jaune fully, his eyes boring into the blonde's soul. "Kid, if we wait until initiation to see how you react to the Grimm in a real situation, you're going to freeze up, and then they're going to kill you, maybe somebody else that tries to protect you. And do you know how your family would react to that? They would be devastated, enough so that I'm sure a few of them would cease to function as people. Just going through the motions in life, can't bring themselves to feel any real happiness. Do you want that, Jaune?" The young man shook his head slowly, the images that came to his mind from those words shocking him. "Good. Now let's get going. I'll be beside you every step of the way."

"Uh, something you should probably know before we get on that bullhead." Grayson raised a brow, and Jaune scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "I have pretty bad motion sickness."

The old huntsman sighed, turned, and began walking. "Yeah, Nick said something like that years ago. I was kinda hoping that it wasn't true, but it looks like you're going to need to learn to deal with it."

Jaune whimpered, walking quickly to catch up to Grayson.

* * *

"Wow. You know, I don't think you even had anything to eat before we got on, so what were those chunks?" Grayson looked down at Jaune, the young Arc flat on the ground, arms spread, looking like he was embracing the stone beneath him.

"Ground, I'll never leave you as long as I live."

The huntsman snorted. "Sorry to burst your bubble kid, but that's not happening, especially if you actually get in. So have fun with what little time down here you'll actually have." The young man groaned in fear of the thought of flying in one of those death traps. "Now come on, we have a forest to get to."

Jaune sighed, and pulled himself from off the ground, outfitted in his armor, sword hanging at his side. "I really regret a lot of my choices right now."

Another snort from the old man. "Maybe you should actually think things through before you just rush in and do them then, huh?" With that, Grayson began to walk. The blonde rolled his eyes, and followed after the huntsman.

The walk was mostly silent, at least, until a blonde woman that looked important spotted them, narrowed her eyes, and quickly intercepted the pair, riding crop in hand. "Professor Hunt, there was a staff meeting this morning, one that were absent from." The woman turned her focus to Jaune, looking the young man up and down, before sighing, and looked back to Grayson. "And who exactly is this boy?"

Standing a little straighter, Grayson gestured to Jaune with one hand. "This, Glynda, is Jaune Arc, latest in his family to apply to become a huntsman. I'm just showing him around, show him the forest, see how many he can cut down."

The woman, Glynda, glared at the huntsman. "Really? Well, if that's the case, I shall accompany you."

Grayson smirked. "You sure you want to do that? I heard Ozpin hasn't been making the best decisions on how to spend the budget, and the year hasn't even started yet."

The glare Glynda pointed at Grayson intensified, almost as if she had been reminded of something she really wanted to forget. "Yes, I've been hearing that as well. It seems that I'll need to have a few choice of words with our dear headmaster. Take Jaune here, and keep an eye on him out in the forest. I don't believe that I need to remind you how many overconfident students have met their end out in those woods."

Any sense of amusement left the old huntsman. "Yeah, how can any of us ever forget?"

With a sigh and shake of her head, Glynda began walking again, warning them before moving out of earshot. "Make sure to stay by his side, Grayson."

Grayson waved, his expression solemn. "Well, I was going to do that anyway, so that works out. Come on kid, let's get going. There are Grimm to kill, and skills to hone."

* * *

The forest was about the same as any he had seen. Green, leafy, and smelling vaguely like something he couldn't quite pin down. Well, it wasn't important anyway, he was here to fight the Grimm, not enjoy the scenery, as nice as it was. The two walked side by side, Jaune having his sword and shield at the ready, an awkward stance that Grayson had nearly laughed at as soon as he saw it. As for the old man, he simply pulled out a revolver from the side of his duster, lazily twirling it around his finger, the firearm blurring due to the speed it was spinning at. "Remember kid, Grimm feel any negative emotion, and that includes nervousness and anxiety, so keep a cool head whenever you're in here, otherwise you might get a surprise that's not all that welcome." Glancing about, Jaune nodded, indicating that he was listening. "Good, and don't forget that I'm only going to help if it looks like things are getting too dangerous for you. Any questions?"

Jaune thought about the conversation earlier between Glynda and Grayson. "Yeah, that woman, she said that there were overconfident students that died here, right? How many was that, exactly?"

The huntsman let out a sigh. "Well, if I'm going to be honest here, I'm pretty sure the only one that knows the exact number would be Ozpin. He has to write to the families, express his regret and sorrow, apologize, and hope that the family doesn't try to ruin his or the school's reputation. Even then, there's going to be backlash from the media, calling for the abolishing of hunter academies from those groups that think we need to live naturally, despite the fact that if we did that, the Grimm would overrun us within a month. So yeah."

As Jaune listened, he couldn't keep the fear from crawling to his mind. "I don't think I ever realized exactly how bad hunters have it. I mean, they have to protect people, and if they fail, they're disgraced by whoever they managed to save."

Grayson let out a snort. "Kid, you have no idea. I've had my named dragged though the mud more times that I even care for. But nobody can suspend me or force me to retire, I'm one of the few huntsman that are even half as old as I am."

Shaking his head, Jaune couldn't help but wonder how much his dad had left out about the true life of hunters. He had always been told of the heroes, the warriors that kept order in the world. But from Grayson's example, it seemed that it was a thankless job, only parading the living, completely ignoring any casualties to keep people from reacting poorly. "So, when do you think we're going to find any Grimm. This forest is a big place, and since we're not putting out too many negative emotions, at least I hope not, we're not exactly drawing any of them to us."

Grayson glanced to the blonde, a smirk playing at his lips. "Good observation. Honestly, it could take a while, so you might as well learn how to walk for some time while keeping your guard up. It's more common than you would think, since the towns outside the kingdoms don't exactly have the most up to date technology at their disposal. I think the usual transport is horse-drawn carriage, but that might be a bit dated, since it's been more than a while since I've been in any towns long enough to see how they live in daily life." Shrugging, the old man glanced around.

Suddenly, a rustling from the left of the pair instantly got their attention. Raising his shield in preparation, Jaune narrowed his eyes, trying to keep his breathing steady, adrenaline starting up. The shrubbery rustled, before parting to reveal a lone Beowolf. The Grimm's red eyes lingered on the duo, before settling onto Jaune, the closer of the two. It growled, before it lunged forward, aiming to maul the blonde.


	3. First Grimm

Jaune brought his shield up quickly, the Grimm's claws scraping against it uselessly. Stumbling back, Jaune swung blindly at the Beowolf, missing every swipe. The Beowolf howled, and lunged again, not quite able to understand that doing the same thing again and again wouldn't work. The blonde brought his shield up again, barely feeling any weight behind the strikes from the single Grimm. Grayson watched, a bored expression on his face, taking in every detail.

Jaune stood his ground for three solid minutes, before the huntsman sighed, leveled the barrel of his revolver to the Beowolf's head, and pulled the trigger, blowing the Grimm's head to wisps of blood and black mist. "Okay, so, how about next time actually _fight _the Grimm, instead of hiding behind that shield of yours. You wouldn't believe how much damage a single sword swing can really do to the bastards." Grayson stepped to the young man, who was feeling frustrated, at himself and Grayson. "Look, just take a swing of that sword at me real quick."

Jaune's eyes widened, frustration turning to panic. "What?! Why?"

Grayson rolled his eyes. "Aura. Look, I just wanna show you something. So wind up, and take a good swing at me." Jaune still looked reluctant, but nodded anyway, wound up his arm, and swung at the old huntsman. Grayson quietly and calmly brought up his free arm, and caught Crocea Mors by the blade. "Jaune, I can catch this sword, and keep it here, because I have aura. Grimm don't, meaning that you can cut them to pieces pretty fast if you put your mind to it." Letting of of the ancestral blade, Grayson turned and began to walk again, motioning for the blonde to follow. "Kid, you're going to be doing this for the next month, then four years if you pass initiation, then the rest of your life once you graduate. If you can't handle one of the weakest Grimm out there, you _will _die during initiation."

"I know that, the woman from earlier said how often people die, then you said that the only one sure of the numbers is the headmaster. It kinda puts things into perspective, you know? I mean, what if I'm not good enough, and I fail, and I have to go back home, and face my family?" Or worse, a small part in the back of his mind thought absently.

The huntsman rolled his eyes. The kid had almost no confidence in his self, almost pessimistic in that sense. "Jaune, I have put you in an illegal cage fight in which you got a tie, and you've faced literally a single Grimm, which you held back pretty well. It's also been less than twenty hours since I decided to take you under my wing. Just give it time, see what happens after a week, then we'll decide if it's actually doing anything for you or not."

Jaune let out a sigh. "I guess. I just can't shake the feeling, though."

Grayson put his free hand on the blonde's shoulder, the old man trying to be reassuring. "Let's just find some more Grimm. I don't think it'll take too long this time around, considering how loud this thing is." The huntsman lifted his revolver, twirling it around his finger for a second.

* * *

As it turned out, Grayson was right. It took considerably less time to find the next Beowolf. Grayson stood to the side again, watching as the Grimm swiped at Jaune, the claws bouncing off the shield. The blonde peered over the shield, before charging forward, sword raised, and cleaved down, straight through the Grimm. As the body hit the ground, beginning to evaporate into nothing, the old man let out a single whistle. "See? Not that hard. Could use some work, but hey, that's what we're here for."

Jaune was breathing deeply, looking down where the Grimm had fallen, the body already nearly gone. He had done it. He had killed a Grimm. So why didn't he feel as great as he thought he would. Was it because it was so much easier than he had been expecting? Or was it because he was thinking about the Beowolf earlier, the one he had barely attacked. Shaking his head, the blonde tried to get rid of the feelings. "Uh, yeah. Thanks, Grayson."

Stepping closer to Jaune, the huntsman stroked his beard with his free hand. "Hm, you know, if I'm going to be teaching you for the next month or so, I think you should call me something that reflects that."

"What, like master or something?"

The old man cringed at the word. "Yeah, no. That word isn't exactly what I had in mind." Looking into the trees, twirling the revolver around his finger, Grayson thought for a moment, before an idea struck him. "You know, my wife had the exact word for this is her first language. It was Sensei. She was Mistralian. She-" Grayson stopped, tilted his head to the side, and frowned. "Damn, looks like we got some more company kid. Get ready."

From nearby, three Beowolves burst into the huntsman's field of vision, quickly followed by an Ursa. The Grimm looked between the two, the smaller Beowolves quickly locking their sights onto Jaune. "Uh, Grayson, what do I do?!" The blonde felt panic seep at his minds edge. Sure, he was able to handle one of the Grimm, but he wasn't sure how he could block three of them at once.

Grayson chuckled. "That's Sensei to you, kid. Don't worry, as soon as you feel them hit, just swing right back at the bastards." Looking the Ursa over, the old man sighed. Some part of him was actually hoping for a challenge. After all, what fun was it if the kid got all the good ones. "Just focus on them, I'll take care of Mr. grumpy over here." As soon as the words left his mouth, the Ursa roared, and charged the old man.

Grinning, Grayson sidestepped the Grimm, and fired two shots into its side, causing the beast to yelp out in pain. It turned, and charged again. The old man rolled his eyes, and sidestepped again. However, he underestimated this particular Grimm's ability to learn and adapt. As Grayson moved, the Ursa slowed its gait, tensed its legs, and lunged at the huntsman. Caught off guard, brought his other hand up to the revolver, and began to fan the hammer. He unloaded the rest of the cylinder into the beast's chest, which, unfortunately, wasn't quite enough to bring the Grimm down.

The Grimm barreled over Grayson, the old man grunting at the impact. As the Grimm knocked him to the ground, the huntsman began to focus his aura into his hands, preparing himself to fight his way out from under the Ursa. Punching upward to the best of his ability, Grayson caught the Grimm in the chin, its head snapping back, before it roared, and dove forward, its teeth biting down into Grayson's shoulder, the aura keeping his flesh and clothes from being torn to shreds.

Growling, the old man did his best to get the Ursa off of him, but he couldn't get any leverage. "Hey, kid! I could use some help! Just hit the damn thing, it doesn't matter where!"

The blonde turned his head, his eyes turning into saucers as he saw the old huntsman struggle underneath the Grimm. "Grayson!" Turning on his feet, Jaune rushed forward, his mind and heart racing. Raising the sword far above his head, he plunged it into the Grimm's back, forcing the beast to shift attention to the younger target. Raising itself onto its hind legs, the beast pulled itself to its full height, forcing Jaune back, Crocea Mors still stuck in its flesh. Stepping back with his shield up, Jaune tried to think of a way to get his sword back without taking too many hits from the Ursa.

Getting to his feet quickly, Grayson holstered his revolver, and reached to his back, drawing his guandao. Dashing forward, Grayson swung, aiming the blade straight at the Ursa's midsection, the blade slicing cleanly through the flesh. The Ursa stopped, a roar choking off at the back of its throat. It tried to move, but that only led to the top half of the Grimm falling to the ground, followed by the bottom half. "Kid, get your sword. You still got some Beowolves to take care of." Grayson let out a sigh, strapped his weapon to his back, and began to rub at the shoulder the Ursa had bitten down on. The aura helped, but it looked like there was a tear or two along the piece of clothing. Shaking his head, the old huntsman looked to the disappearing remains of the Grimm that had caught him off guard. Usually Ursa that young kept charging until either their prey had died, or they did. Looking to the young Arc, Grayson saw that the young man hadn't moved, simply staring at Grayson. "What? It caught be off guard, and bit me. Aura." Rolling his eyes, the old man walked over to the ancestral blade, picking it up, hefting it in his hand to test the weight, before nodding, and making his way to Jaune. "Beowolves. Get them." Flipping the sword over, Grayson thrust the handle toward Jaune, who had blinked out of his stupor, and taking the sword.

"But, you nearly..." Jaune didn't finish the sentence, not wanting to think about what would have happened if he hadn't been there.

Sighing again, Grayson rubbed at his face, pointing to the Grimm that had taken a more cautious distance since the death of the Ursa. "Kill them first."

Turning, the young Arc was somewhat surprised that the Grimm hadn't run off once Grayson had killed the Ursa with a single swing. "Of course, Sensei." Bringing his shield up, Jaune started approaching the Beowolves.

Grinning, the old man brought out his revolver, and began to reload, his eyes sticking to Jaune. "Oh, and take what just happened as a lesson. Never underestimate the Grimm, or any enemy you have to take on. Otherwise, well, you saw what happened."

Not taking his eyes off the of the Grimm, Jaune frowned. "Can you really just talk about that? You nearly died."

Snickering, Grayson finished reloading his revolver, idly swirling it around his finger. "Kid, trust me, shit like that happens a lot more than you would think. Especially when you're still as green as you are. Hell, most of the people that are going to be attending have been doing this for years. Training for their whole lives. So you're probably going to be play catch up to a lot of them, at least for a while. Anyway, point is, don't worry about it. It's something we prepare you kids for, even if you shouldn't ever be in that situation, but that's too much to hope for."

Getting closer, Jaune lunged, stabbing at the Beowolf closest to him, the beast unable to react fast enough, and earning a sword in the throat, killing it quickly. The two Grimm that were left growled, backing away from the young man slowly. Tugging the sword from the dissipating flesh, Jaune eyed the Beowolves, before rushing forward, raising his sword high, and cleaving the head off of one, the other howling, and lunging at the blonde. Bringing up his shield, Jaune kept the Grimm at bay, gritting his teeth.

From his position, the old huntsman smiled. The kid was actually doing pretty alright, especially since this was his first time actually getting this close to Grimm. Maybe a few more, and he would call it a day for the kid's sake. Watching, Grayson grinned as Jaune took a step back, leaving the Grimm to miss completely, before cleaving its head in two. "Good job kid. Now, just do that about three or four more times, and we'll call it quits."

* * *

After five more encounters with the Grimm, Grayson had decided to take mercy on the poor boy. "Alright, pack it up kid, we're heading back. We got a lot more work to do."

Panting, Jaune looked to Grayson with confusion. "Wait, more work? But I just killed a bunch of Grimm. Shouldn't that be enough?"

The old man chuckled. "Nope. If it was that simple, we wouldn't need to teach hunters so extensively. After a mission, you gotta make a return trip, and if things go wrong, find some kind of civilization on foot. So, we gotta work on that stamina of yours. Which means exercise. But before we get to that, I need to think of a plan for you, try to get max results we can in the single month we have." Twirling the revolver, Grayson began the journey back to Beacon, idly whistling some tune.

Groaning, Jaune folded the mechashift shield into its sheath form, and stored away Crocea Mors. "Man, this huntsman thing isn't really turning out like I thought it would."

Rolling his eyes, Grayson decided to take a few jabs at the kid's plan. "Yeah, because just showing up counts for so much these days. Kid, I've told you how many people die, even preparing as long as they have, which is so much more than the time limit you've given me. But don't worry, because if there's one thing I'm good at, it's making sure kids like you don't get themselves killed doing stupid things. It's almost become second nature ever since-" Cutting his own sentence short with a shake of his head, the huntsman switched topics, "Not important. What _is _important, is the new program that I'm going to be giving you."

Jaune blinked, as his brain formed the most intelligent reply it could come up with. "Huh?"

Sighing, Grayson stopped twirling his revolver. "Kid, we have a month, so we're going to need to get you some serious gains, both in mass and stamina. Because, if I'm going to be completely honest with you, you look like you've never lifted anything even half your own weight before. We'll need to fix that if you're going to be swing that sword of yours." Walking for a minute, a thought suddenly struck Grayson, as if he had been hit in the back of his head with a sledgehammer with his aura down. "Wait a fucking minute, do you have any ranged options?"

Jaune tilted his head, thinking for only a second. "Uh, not really. Why? Shouldn't my sword be enough?"

Breathing in deeply, the old man counted to ten silently. "Kid, what do you think is gonna happen if you're too tired to swing that sword? Or if you can't lift that shield to keep the Grimm from ripping you to shreds?" Cursing under his breath, the huntsman quickened his pace, not bothering to check if Jaune could keep up or not. "Alright kid, we'll think of a routine for you later. Right now, we need to get you something, hell even a starter hunter pistol will do, and then we're going to have to teach you how to shoot properly." Groaning, Grayson began to wonder what possessed Nicholas to keep his own son from any of this. It was almost a family business at this point.

"Uh, Sensei, how hard can it be? You just aim and shoot, right?"

Feeling his eye twitch, Grayson stopped, Jaune colliding and falling to his ass. Turning, the old man crossed his arms, his grip on the revolver tightening. "Jaune, trust me when I say that thinking like that will get you killed. No, it's not that simple. You need to think about what rounds are best suited for a mission, you need to maintain the gun to make sure it doesn't jam, or even worse, and you need to make sure the recoil isn't going to cause you to waste every round into the air." Sighing, Grayson helped the young Arc to his feet. "Look, I don't mean to come across as too intense, but I've seen good people die because of basic shit like that. And I made a promise a long time ago to keep as many alive as humanly possible."

Looking away, Jaune wasn't sure what to say to that. Who did he make that promise to? Himself? "Uh, sorry..."

Shaking his head, the old man let his arms fall to his side. "I'm not gonna say that it's fine, because then I'd be lying to your face. But I'm gonna do what I can to make sure you get through initiation in one piece. Trust me on that." Turning, Grayson began to walk again, at a slower pace.

* * *

At Beacon, Grayson walked with a purpose. He was going to make sure Jaune was kept alive for years, and all he needed to do was get a firearm for the kid, which, if he was being honest with himself, was a lot easier said than done. He needed to teach the kid to shoot, what felt comfortable in his hand, and a whole other load of problems that he almost dreaded to address.

Walking behind Grayson, Jaune couldn't help but glance around nervously. There was so much more to being a huntsman than the stories and other things told him. Some small part of him told him that it was too much, that he should quit while he was ahead. But that part was something he felt he needed to ignore, not just for himself, but for all the people that were out risking their lives. Shaking his head, the young Arc spoke up. "So, uh, Sensei, where exactly are we going? To a gun shop?"

Humming in response, Grayson pondered the question. Shops like that were mostly for civilians that wanted to protect their homes, or the police that had to deal with crooks and thugs without aura, a far cry from the hulking beasts that were the Grimm. But they also had a few hunter-grade firearms from time to time. "Sure, we'll check a few shops, see what they have, if anything. And if there's nothing worth picking up, we'll see if we can't get something custom, and if that fails. I'll just pull some strings, say I need something other than Order."

Furrowing his brow, Jaune wondered what the old man was referring to. Then it hit him, they were talking about guns after all. "Oh, that's your revolver, right?"

Rolling his eyes at the question, the huntsman nodded. "Yep. It's gotten me through hell and back. Just goes to show that if you take care of your gun, it'll take care of you."

"Right, so, if that's your gun's name, what do you call the spear on your back?" Jaune was a bit curious, since most of the famous hunters made sure their weapons had cool names.

Growing silent, Grayson wondered if he should answer the kid honestly or not. It was more personal than his revolver, and something that hurt every time he cut down Grimm. "First of all, it's not a spear, it's a guandao, a weapon that came from Mistral. Secondly, the name..." Breathing in deeply, the old man decided to bite the bullet. "It's name is Hikari. Don't ask why. If you make it through initiation, I'll tell you."

There was something in the way Grayson said the name that sent a chill down Jaune's spine. Nodding, the young man wasn't sure what to think about the weapon on the old man's back. It was obviously special to him, but Jaune couldn't quite piece of together just yet. Oh well, there were more important things to think about. Like the kind of gun he was going to get.

* * *

It turns out Vale had a lot more gun shops that Jaune was expecting. Entering the fourth one that afternoon, Jaune glanced around, not finding many people, just like the others.

As Grayson approached the employee manning the register, he bit back a sigh. The guy looked to be nearly asleep. "Excuse me, but I was wondering if you had anything that was hunter-grade in stock?"

The man flinched, rubbing at his eyes. "Huh? Oh, uh, let me check the inventory real quick. They don't exactly just give tags to the things." Moving to the door behind him, the man opened it and stepped inside.

Fifteen minutes later, Grayson checked the clock hanging above the entrance. Sighing, he was starting to think it would be another bust. About to call to Jaune, the door opened, the man holding two firearms, which he set on the counter. One was a double barrel sawed-off, the other being a magnum pistol. "Hm, that would definitely do it." Turning, Grayson called out to the young Arc. "Hey kid! We got something."

Hearing his teacher's voice, Jaune approached the old man, looking at the guns set on the counter. "This is it, huh?" Not one, but two hunter-grade firearms, he wasn't sure if it was lucky or not.

Looking to Grayson, Jaune raised a brow. Sighing, the old man began to explain. "Alright kid, so we have the shotgun, which has a bit more spread the further away something is, but it should pack a bigger punch than the pistol, at least when less distance is involved. It also only carries two shots, so you're gonna need to be smart when to fire, and when to hold back. The magnum, on the other hand, looks like it can hold seven rounds, plus the one in the chamber, so you won't need to worry as much about your aim. You still should, but you have a lot more chances to hit your target." Looking between the two, Grayson was leaning more toward the pistol, but it wasn't his choice to make. "Well, wanna head to the range, see what feels better?"

Jaune nodded, and headed to the door across from the counter, into the range. Grayson sighed, and as he got ammo for the two firearms, wondered how well the kid he was mentoring would do. Grabbing the firearms, and storing the ammo in his duster pockets, Grayson headed into the range, grabbing a pair of ear plugs for the young Arc, and stepped into the range.

Picking a lane, Grayson put the guns down, and pulled out the ammo for both firearms. "Alright, before we start, put these in." Handing the ear plugs to Jaune, Grayson saw the look the young man was giving him. "You've never shot a gun in your life, so before you fire a shot, you should know that the bang they make is a shot load louder in a space like this. Out in the forest, it was free to just disperse all around in the open air. In here, the sound is gonna bounce off the walls, and fucking hurt to even listen to. My hearing is already kinda going, so I don't really care." Making sure Jaune had put the ear plugs in correctly, the old man picked up the pistol, and loaded it. "Now, I'm going to fire a few times for both of these, make sure to watch the way I hold it, the way my body is positioned, and for the love of the gods, _never _look down the barrel." Sighing, Grayson took aim, the target appearing a few seconds later, and immediately Grayson adjusted, and pulled the trigger twice.

A few more repeats of that, and Grayson switched to the shotgun, loading the barrels, simply aiming idly, the target appearing, and the old man moving the gun to the target's direction, and firing. More repeats, and the huntsman setting the shot gun down, and moving away from the lane, and gesturing fro Jaune to step up. "Okay, I can do this. Just like you did."

"Yeah, just be careful of the recoil, make sure you don't bust your nose." Snickering, Grayson thought back to his first time shooting a gun, bashing his own nose. Jaune loaded the pistol, breathed in deeply, and aimed. The target appeared, and Jaune fired.


	4. More Than a Few Firsts

Jaune looked at the target. He had gotten better with his pistol, not by much, but by enough that it was definitely noticeable. Getting closer to the center, day by day. Shaking his head, Jaune walked out of the range, making sure to put the safety on his pistol, and removing the plugs from his ears. Outside, Grayson smiled. "Well kid, I didn't think you'd have a chance in hell to hit the broad side of a barn, but look at you. You're actually 'getting good', like all those hip teens say these days." The shit eating grin told Jaune that the huntsman was intentionally being like that one old relative that was trying to get closer to their grandkids, but didn't know the first thing about them.

"Sensei please don't do this to me." Jaune held his hands in a pleading gesture. He had only known Grayson for a week, but he had come to realize how much of a sadist the old man could be when he wanted. "Please, for the love of all that is holy, just talk like a normal person."

Chuckling, the huntsman decided to relent. "Fine. But seriously, you're not exactly improving by leaps and bounds, but it's not exactly anything to scoff at either, you should be more proud, kid. Not every day you find somebody as determined as you." His grin returning, Grayson decided to let the kid know exactly how much he had improved. "In fact, you've improved so much, I think you're finally read to go a round or two with me."

Jaune's eyes widened, an instinctive fear gripping him. Looking past his mentor, the young Arc saw freedom in the exit of the gun shop. "Uh, you know, as much as I would love that, I actually haven't eaten anything today, so I kinda need to go do that." Walking past Grayson, Jaune prayed that this wouldn't be a repeat of their first encounter.

Unfortunately, fate had different plans for the blonde. "Nonsense. Hunters don't get the luxury of just eating whenever they want when they're out on missions, you'll be fine if you miss lunch." Grabbing Jaune by the hood, Jaune jerked, thankfully staying on his feet. Wrapping an arm around Jaune's neck, Grayson's grin turned sadistic. "Besides, what good will simple Grimm and cage fights do you? You need to experience a real fight some skilled warriors. It helps show what you can achieve, if you just set you're mind to it."

Squirming, the young Arc, tried his best to break free from his mentor's hold. "Uh, yeah, that's nice and all, but don't you think you can give motivational speeches when you're _not _wrapping an arm around my neck? It doesn't exactly let me feel free to disagree with you. I mean, I'm sure that cage fighting is going to help me a lot. It already has, I think I can see some muscle building in my body."

Shaking his head, Grayson dragged Jaune outside the shop, and into the streets of Vale, the sun beating down on the pair. "Oh please, sure you can build muscle, but we both know that your aura is going to be doing most of the work during the initiation, then we'll get you some real gains. Besides, you haven't been able to use your semblance ever since your first fight, and you told me that you were feeling some pretty intense emotions at the time. Maybe we can replicate the experience, get those feelings rushing to your brain, eh?"

Gulping, Jaune wasn't sure if the old man was trying to scare him or not, but if he was, it was definitely working. "Uh..." The words seemed to stick to the young man's throat, unable to even enter his mouth, much less get out. He couldn't exactly argue with Grayson's logic, even it he really wanted to.

The huntsman's grin grew wider. "Great! I'll just call in a favor from Glynda, she owes me a few more. Probably three or five. Eh, I'm sure she's been keeping track, its' what I would do in her shoes." Glancing back to Jaune, Grayson remembered that they needed to get to Beacon. "Oh, right. Back to Beacon, so make sure to get a bucket ready."

Jaune groaned, not wanting to suffer, but knew that it didn't matter what he wanted, because at the end of the day, Grayson always had a way to rope Jaune into sessions of torture that he called training.

* * *

Standing over the trash can, Jaune wanted nothing more than the sweet release of death. Only then would he be truly at rest. Spitting out the bile that had collected in his mouth, the young Arc looked up, glaring swords at the huntsman. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

Rolling his eyes, Grayson reached into his pockets, pulling out a tin of mints. Popping it open, he offered the little candies to the young man, who had taken the whole container. The old man shrugged. "Not really, but strength is born in the face of despair, or something like that. Anyway, you need to get your game face on, because we're going to be using one of the combat rooms, and I'm not sure how well Glynda is going to take it. So just let me do the talking, and everything is gonna be fine."

Shoving three of the mints into his mouth, Jaune nodded, not wanting to open his mouth any more than he had to. The young man stepped away from the trash, and began to follow the old man, who was walking toward the grand buildings of Beacon. Walking through the halls, Jaune couldn't help the feeling of wonder that was blossoming in his chest. It all looked so majestic.

The feeling died as he heard heels clicking against the stone floor. "Professor Hunt, I see that you're here with young Jaune Arc. Again." Glaring at the old man, Glynda Goodwitch sighed. "Whatever am I going to do with you and your reckless stunts?"

Snorting, Grayson looked to the side, a smirk on his face. "I don't know, but I'm sure if I wasn't as reckless as I was, you'd still be dealing with the fallout of the Qrowjob Incident." At those words, the blonde woman's eyes widened, her body stiffened, and Jaune was sure he could see one of her hands shaking. "Anyway, speaking of that, I'm gonna be calling in another favor. I need a combat room ready real quick."

Glynda was silent for a moment, before nodded, and, in a voice so quiet both men could hardly hear it, "I'll make sure to do that. That's two favors you have left, Grayson. Spend them wisely, because you won't be getting any more, save in the event you happen to keep me alive in some way." Turning, the woman walked away stiffly.

Jaune watched Glynda leave, a bit concerned for the woman. "Uh, Sensei, if you don't mind me asking, what exactly is the Qrowjob Incident?"

Snickering, Grayson began walking again, his stride having a bit of pep in it. "Oh, that something I've under legal contract to not go into detail, but then again, you've seen what I think of certain activities that are deemed illegal. Anyway, there's a colleague I have, his name is Qrow. So, there's this Atlas gathering we're all at, and Qrow, he get's drunk. Well, drunker than usual, they had Atlesian vodka, which is almost the strongest stuff on Remnant. So, Qrow gets absolutely shitface drunk, and I'm talking blackout, wake up in bed with a complete stranger kind of drunk, and I shit you not." Fighting off giggles, Grayson struggles to tell the story. "I swear, he gets up onto a table, and shouts out, in these exact words; 'Glynda, if you can get me a lifetime supply of this shit, I promise, I'm going to give you a Qrowjob that will swear you off of any other human being for the rest of your life.' Word for word, albeit slurred to nearly gibberish. And the whole party stops dead."

Jaune wasn't sure if what he was being told was completely accurate, but he didn't really care, the story was too good not to crack up at. "What happened then?"

Grinning like a madman, the huntsman continues. "So, while everyone is just gawking at the bastard, I walk up, a little buzzed myself, and I just say; 'Qrow, did what we have mean nothing to you? Am I just some piece of meat to be used and tossed away without a second glance?' And that's when somebody starts giggling, and pretty soon everybody is laughing their asses off, because people in Atlas may be stuck up cunts, but at the end of the day, they're people too, and everybody can laugh as some stupid shit."

"Wow, I think that story just made my day." The old man's grin turned sadistic at those words.

"Good, because I'm about to ruin it." Jaune frowned, confused, before he remembered why they were at Beacon in the first place.

"Sensei, no..."

Wrapping an arm around Jaune's neck, Grayson began to laugh. "Oh, Sensei yes. Don't worry Jaune, I'll make sure to take it easy on you. After all, I'm not a _complete _monster. Only about, eh, I wanna say a sixth of one. More or less." Opening a door that the young Arc hadn't noticed, the huntsman took his student into a large room with what looked like a simple ring in the center, a large screen near the top of the room. "So, here's how it's going to go down; we're going to get some sensors to measure our auras on that big screen, we're going to go into the ring, and we're going to fight. Simple, but definitely not easy. For you, at least, I'm probably going to be using one hand to give you a handicap."

Scrambling out from Grayson's grip, Jaune glared at the huntsman, ready to give his mentor a piece of his mind, before something hit him in the face, cutting his rant off before it could even begin. Yanking the object away from his face, the young man saw that it was a tangle of wires with what looked like sensor pads. "Uh, Sensei? What am I supposed to do with-" Looking up, the young Arc understood why the very concept of brain bleach was a thing, as he saw his mentor, a man older than him by decades, shedding the upper portion of his clothes, attaching the sensor pads to his lean, scar-riddled body. "Well, that answers that question." Looking down to the wires, then back to his mentor, Jaune spoke up nervously. "Uh, can you, maybe turn around until I'm ready."

Raising a brow as he put his shirt back on, the old man shook his head. "What, you got performance anxiety?" Even with that little jab, Grayson turned around, not wanting to actually make his student uncomfortable. "Take as long as you need." Whipping out his scroll, the huntsman connected the sensors to the large screen.

As Jaune attached the pads to his skin, he felt his aura react, a sensation not unlike the shivering of skin. "So, how exactly are we going to do this? Is it anything goes like the cage fights? Or is there a set of rules or something?" Pulling his shirt back over his head, Jaune looked to his weapons reassured at the sight of Crocea Mors, along with the magnum holstered on his opposite hip.

Grayson shrugged, then remembered that Jaune wouldn't see it. "Well, once one of our auras goes into the red, we'll call it off, then I'll tell you what you did right, and what you did wrong. We'll probably be doing this two or three times a week, maybe every other day. I might give you a resting period for the last week, just make one last mad dash to the finish line with your stamina, and Grimm killing skills."

Turning, Jaune nodded, signaling that he was ready. "Okay, just making sure." Looking up to the screen, he saw two bars, with Grayson's portrait next to one of them, while the other was blank. "Hey, Sensei, why do you have your picture up there, and I don't?"

"Because kid, you're not officially a part of Beacon, so we don't have anything to identify you, aside from your name on a piece of paper, which I'm sure Ozpin has already sniffed out the bullshit that's coming from it, anyway. Not like it'll matter if you pass the initiation, since he legally can't refuse anyone that passes. Trust me, you're actually not the first one to do this, but you might be the first one to actually pass the thing." Putting his scroll on the floor a good distance from the ring, Grayson rolled his arms back, popping coming from his shoulders. "Alright, do your best kid, otherwise I'll feel bad."

Shaking his head, Jaune stepped into the ring, unsheathing his sword, and bringing his shield up. "Alright, ready whenever you are."

Entering the opposite side, Grayson chuckled. "No, kid, you're not." With those words, the huntsman drew Hikari, and rushed forward, daring the weapon back, and swinging down on top of Jaune, the strike stopped by the young man raising his shield in time. "Rule one of a real fight, you're not getting any heads up." Drawing back, Grayson thrust at Jaune from under the shield, getting a solid hit, before the young Arc slammed the shield down.

Letting go of the weapon was painful for Grayson, but he had to teach the kid more than a few lessons in this fight. As Jaune swung down with his sword, the old man stepped out of the way, cocked back his fist, and unleashed the devastating punch, causing Jaune to stagger back a few steps. Kicking the guandao back into his hands, Grayson smirked. As the young Arc regained his bearings, he saw the huntsman standing in the middle of the ring, resting his weapon on his back, a shit eating grin on his face.

Gritting his teeth, Jaune charged forward with his shield raised. As he neared his mentor, the young man decided to take a risk, and let his shield down, and lunged forward, ready to tackle the old man to the ground. Unfortunately, Grayson had seen it, and jumped away from the blonde. As Jaune was on the ground, Grayson stepped forward, reared his leg back, and kicked Jaune right in the ribs, sending his protege back by a good few feet.

Gasping out from the pain, Jaune was quick to get back to his feet, already realizing that he would be lucky to land even a few hits on the old man. He also knew that his mentor would just find a way around his shield, forcing him to expose himself by attacking. Shaking his head, the young man decided the only way to have the slightest hint of a chance would be to be an unrelenting force against the huntsman. But to do that, he would need one good opening. Glancing down to his holstered pistol, the blonde decided to go for broke. Rushing forward and dropping his sword, Jaune drew his pistol, peering over his shield to see Grayson reaching into his duster.

Ducking behind the shield, Jaune felt the rounds hit his shield harmlessly. As soon as he counted six, he lowered his shield, aimed the pistol, and fired three times at Grayson. The old man took the shots, his aura flaring. Growling, the huntsman charged forward, and grabbed the pistol before Jaune could pull the trigger another time. Ripping the gun out the the young man's hand, Grayson reared back his fist, and let loose another blow to Jaune's face.

But this time, the huntsman wasn't about to let the advantage go to waste. Grabbing the shield, Grayson yanked it away from his protege's body, leaving him open for whatever the huntsman was going to subject him to. Namely, it was a series of punches, along with a knee or two thrown into Jaune's stomach. Jaune tried to retaliate, his fist swinging near Grayson. Knocking the arm away, Grayson threw his protege to the side, kicking the young Arc as he was falling. The blonde landed, his wind knocked out of him.

Looking down at the young man in front of him, Grayson shook his head, and decided to do the right thing. Stepping to the young man, the huntsman extended a hand, concern hinted in his eyes. The blonde took the hand, and found the strength to stand. Grayson clapped both hands onto Jaune's shoulder, and with a grin, told his protege, "Kid, you've come a long way in literally just a week. Hell, you've done what took me months to do. You're growing faster than anything I've ever seen."

"Uh, thanks, it really feels like I can do better..."

Barking out a laugh, Grayson gestured to the large screen displaying the aura levels of the two. "Jaune, do you really not having _any _idea how much aura you have?"

Looking up, Jaune's eyes widened. He was only at about half, while Grayson was at three fourths. "I... I knocked you that far down?"

"Yes, Jaune, I don't nearly have as much aura as you do, it's honestly impressive." Something even more so since he hadn't exactly been hitting the kid like a normal person, he had been hitting like a truck compared to his rare sparring sessions with students. "You'll be ready in three weeks, hell, maybe even half that."

"Heh, I won't stop you from dreaming, Sensei."

Shaking his head, Grayson stepped back, raising his hands up. "Trust me. I'll make sure to talk to you right before the initiation."

* * *

One entire month. It had felt like years ago, back when he had gotten angry at his dad for not wanting his son to get himself killed. Jaune shook his head, not entirely out of nostalgia, as his stomach was doing flips, and he wanted so desperately to be on solid ground, almost praying in his head. He just had to-

It was slowing down, which set off a lurch in his stomach, but he held it down, with nearly all of his willpower, waited until the bullhead landed, and the doors opened, that he made it to the nearby trashcan, and lost the battle, his lunch coming up and back out. Once done, he smeared his mouth with his sleeve, which had somehow come unstained. Walking more more steadily now, Jaune looked up, and nearly had a heart attack with what he saw.

There, with the shit eating grin that had inspired fear in his heart, was Grayson Hunt. Gulping, Jaune had forgotten the bile in his mouth, and continued to fail to notice. "Uh, hey Sensei. I, uh, I definitely didn't get motion sickness." Cringing internally, Jaune cursed his inability to lie well. "...yeah that's what happened..."

Shaking his head, the old man chuckled. "Kid, you are literally the only one to have it, in all the time that I've been here, and this is my seventh year teaching. Called it."

Rolling his eyes, the young Arc walked past the huntsman, who hadn't even taken a second to fall in sync with the blonde. "Sensei, it's fine, it only lasts for a minute after the ride, no big deal."

"I know, but it's still real fucking hilarious."

"Oh, so you're telling me that my suffering brings you joy? Alright then." Grinning, the huntsman shrugged.

"Anyway, the initiation is going to start at the cliff face, I'm not sure why. Good thing you spent so much time in the forest, so I'm positive you know which one I'm talking about. Anyway, you didn't hear it from me, but word is that first person you see becomes your partner for all the Beacon, so be sure you know who to trust your life with." Stroking his beard, Grayson couldn't help but wonder why that had been chosen, but only shrugged, sure that Ozpin had thought hard about the method. "There you go, there's your obligatory grain of wisdom."

"Thanks, it's better hearing it _not _from you, than from someone else."

"Nah, he wouldn't tell you at literally the last minute. I think." Again, the huntsman shrugged. So just listen to what he has to say, and do what they tell you."

With that last bit of advice, the mentor stepped away from Jaune, and began to walk in a different direction entirely. Walking, Jaune was breathing in easy.

At least, he was until he heard an explosion in the distance, and sighed, before doing the right thing, and heading to the explosion to check if anyone was hurt. Near the source of the noise were three young women. A girl with the purest of white hair, complete with the figure of an angel. In an instant, Jaune could feel hormones, and confused them for feelings of love, but it was really just his brain telling him to procreate. In any event, he noticed the other two girls soon enough, the one in red reminding him of one of his little sisters. And finally the girl in black and white, just standing there, nearly stoic.

After the monochrome girl, and the snow angel had left the girl with the red hood, Jaune approached, the girl falling to her knees, and then to her back, something Jaune could relate to, as he had been as awkward. Walking over to the girl, he stood over her, hand reached out. "So, you don't look like you're having a great day. I'm Jaune."

The girl looked up, and smiled, thankful that there was somebody will to stick around her. "I'm not gonna lie, it hasn't been the greatest." Taking the offered hand, the girl pulled herself up, smiling to show her appreciation. "I'm Ruby." Looking at Jaune, the girl, Ruby seemed to realize something, and snickered into her hand. "Hey, you're the guy that nearly lost his lunch on the flight here, right?"

Jaune frowned. He didn't want his first impression to be the 'vomit boy', otherwise Grayson wouldn't ever let him live it down. "Yeah, hey, can we just forget about that. It's actually a lot more common than you think it is." Jaune knew he had said the same thing to his mentor, and he had just laughed at Jaune, not with any malice, but it still annoyed him a bit.

"I don't know, it really only looked like you were struggling the way there." Taking a step forward, and kept walking, at least until, tapped her on the shoulder. "Huh, what's up?"

Pointing his finger in the opposite finger, Jaune raised a brow. "Uh, the auditorium is that way, so we should head on over."

Scratching the back of her head, Ruby felt herself blush, a tad embarrassed. "Oh, uh, right. Hehehe..."

Smiling, Jaune simply rolled his eyes, and began to walk, his first new friend at his side. Yeah, Jaune was glad that he was where he was, and he could only thank the man he had run into by complete accident.


	5. First Day

"Look, let's both just agree that we both have some shortcomings, and leave it a that, alright?" Jaune asked, the two approaching a large crowd of students. Not bothering to scan the crowd, Jaune stood next to Ruby. "So, any idea what they're gonna say to motivate us?"

Unfortunately, any conversation was cut short by a young woman's voice calling out. "Hey, Ruby! I saved you a spot!"

The pair's attention was directed to the one calling out for the young girl. She was blonde, and her hair was probably the first thing anyone would notice about this girl. It looked like a wild creature had made its home atop her head, with the way it reached down her back, ending near her butt. Ruby let out a gasp, and turned to Jaune. "I'm really sorry about this, but I'll talk to you after the ceremony, I promise."

Jaune nodded. "Sounds good. See you later." Ruby smiled apologetically, and ran off to join the blonde girl. Letting out a quiet sigh, Jaune took a few aimless steps. "Great, now where am I supposed to find a nice, quirky girl?" Shaking his head, the young Arc stood around for a few seconds, before pulling out his scroll, and with nothing better to do, sent a quick message to Grayson. 'hey, so do u think u can giv me ne last minute advice? i'm a little nervous.'

Looking up from the screen, Jaune's attention wandered to Ruby, who, along with the blonde girl, seemed to be getting yelled at by the angel in white. The young Arc frowned, not sure what was happening, before the buzzing of his scroll alerted him to his mentor's response. 'It still hurts to look at that grammar. Look, the only thing that I can really tell you at this moment is to be confident in yourself. Sorry for the generic line, but I'm kinda getting ready for the school year, so talk to me once initiation's over, and everything gets settled.'

Well, that had been kind of a bust. Shaking his head, and pocketing his scroll, Jaune's attention was once again planted to Ruby's little trio. It seemed the angel was talking, and pointing at him. Focusing his hearing, the young Arc was able to hear the tail end of her sentence. "...And talk about cute boys like tall, blonde, and awkward over there."

Ouch. Well, it could have been worse. He was glad he had kept to the routine Grayson had put him off, so at least he had a good body, one she hadn't been able to insult directly. Before Jaune could speak up, the sound of a throat being cleared resonated throughout the auditorium. "I'll... keep this brief." Turning his attention to the stage, Jaune saw the headmaster, Ozpin, with Glynda Goodwitch standing to the side. "You have traveled here today in search of knowledge-to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose. Direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." With that short speech over with, Ozpin walked off, not even looking to the young men and women gathered.

Glynda stepped up to the microphone propped up. "You will gather at the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow, you're initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed." With that, the blonde girl stepped away.

Jaune thought the whole thing was strange. Grayson had said that Ozpin usually gave long, inspirational speeches that left people with a fiery determination, but what Ozpin had said, well, he wasn't sure if the headmaster had even filtered anything from his brain to his mouth. Strange. Shaking his head, the young Arc glanced to the snow angel. Walking up to the three, Jaune smirked, and leaned in casually, not at all in a creepy manner, "I'm a natural blonde, y'know."

The angel sighed, and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Right, and I'm leaving." Turning with a huff, the girl began to walk away.

The blonde girl snickered. "Wow, that's some game you got there, Vomit Boy."

The smirk faded at the nickname. Well, so far he had been made fun of by three girls. Granted, two of them weren't really trying to hurt his feelings, but it still stung his pride a bit. Opening his mouth, Jaune was about to tell her exactly what he thought of the name, before Ruby had punched the blonde girl in the shoulder. "Yang! Don't say that, he's my friend. My first friend of Beacon, in fact."

Jaune smiled, a warm feeling settling into his chest. Looking back at his life before, he hadn't really made any friends of his own, only sticking around groups of people that wouldn't insult him constantly. But this, he could tell that this was friendship, even if it was only the beginning. "Thanks, Ruby. I was worried that name would stick with me for the rest of my time here."

Ruby giggled. "Hey, no friend of mine is going to have to deal with a horribly yet accurate nickname. Unless it's _really_ funny."

Shaking his head, Jaune couldn't help but chuckle, a habit he had picked up from his mentor. "That's good to know." Turning his attention to the fellow blonde, Jaune held out a hand. "I'm Jaune. Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue." The young Arc nearly embarrassed himself by finishing the rest of the lame pickup line out loud. Thankfully, Grayson had beaten the words out of his head during the past month.

The blonde girl shook his hand, using a tight grip, but thankfully nothing more painful than sparring with the old huntsman, that had found some enjoyment at his suffering. "Yang. Yang Xiao-Long. I'm Ruby's sister. Older sister, in case you couldn't tell." Yang gave a quick wink, a gesture that brought a small blush to Jaune's cheeks, nervous laughter bubbling up on its own.

If all the girls were like this, Jaune wasn't sure his time at Beacon would be as much of a breeze as Grayson made it out to be. Well, he would have to wait and see, and pray that there were more girls like Ruby.

* * *

Night had fallen quickly enough, and Jaune looked around the ballroom, part of him wondering what everybody's reaction to his onesie would have been, if his mentor hadn't taken it from him, and cut it to pieces, shot it, and burned it while laughing like a madman. Yeah, that was an interesting day, to be sure. Luckily, Grayson had gotten him some more appropriate nightwear for somebody his age, even if Jaune would miss that onesie to his dying breath. At the moment, Jaune was wearing a simple white t-shirt, a bit tighter than it had been when first bought, along with navy blue sweats. Walking with the sleeping bag given to him under his arm, the young Arc scoured the ballroom for an empty spot to sleep. There were more people than he had thought, but then again, he hadn't exactly been able to get a good guess on the number, considering his flight, and then talking with Ruby and Yang for a while.

Shaking his head, the young man turned his head, saw the wild mane of Yang's hair, and scanned the area near her. It looked like the sisters had a space open next to either of them. With a shrug, Jaune decided that he had nothing to lose in asking if he could sleep next to them. Walking over, Jaune cleared his throat as he approached, not wanting to startle the sisters. "So, hey, I was wondering if I was able to sleep next to some friendly faces?"

Yang looked at Jaune with narrowed eyes for a few seconds, before grinning widely. "Sure! Ruby was just whining about not having any friends around. Now that you're here, she can see that she has at least one, and as long as you're a _real _friend, that's all she'll ever need." The grin on her face somehow got wider, reminding Jaune vaguely of his mentor. Jaune was about to roll out his sleeping bag next to Ruby, before Yang coughed softly. "Uh, she's also a cuddle bug, just letting you know."

Ruby's face was aflame, and she was pouting. "Yang! You can't just tell him embarrassing things like that! It makes me look like a kid..." Ruby sighed, and began writing, a small notebook open in front of her. "And now I have to start over on the friend count..."

Jaune smiled, and pat the younger girl on the back. "Hey, don't let it bother you too much, I'm here without any friends too. We can be social outcasts together." Well, that sounded a lot better in his head. Although, by the sound of Ruby trying to hold her giggles in, it wasn't too depressing a thought. "Besides, who doesn't like cuddles? They're like hugs, but even better."

Yang nudged her sister softly. "See? Plus one friend."

Ruby sighed, closed the small notebook, and put it over to the side. "Yeah, but I'm pretty sure Weiss hates me, so that's minus one friend."

The young Arc frowned. "I don't think that's how friends work." Ruby glared, but Jaune only shrugged, too used to his mentor's sadism to be affected. "Besides, it's only been a day. Like my mom always said 'strangers are just friends you haven't met yet.'" As the words left his mouth, Jaune couldn't stop the feeling of guilt bubbling in his chest. His family must be worried sick, it had been a while since he had even heard from from them.

Hearing the sound of a match being lit, the three turned to the small glow that had appeared from the flame. There, sitting against one of the walls, was a girl dressed in strange, definitely foreign pajamas, reading a book. Ruby gasped. "It's that girl..."

Yang raised a brow, even if nobody could see it. "You know her?"

Ruby made an iffy motion with her hand. "Not really. She saw what happened this morning, but she walked off before I could say anything to her."

Yang grinned. "Well, I think this is the perfect time for making even more friends than Vomit Boy." Jaune and Ruby frowned at the nickname, but before either could get a word out, Yang stood up, and pulled her younger sister to her feet. "Come on!"

Ruby sputtered out gibberish as she resisted with all her might, which, admittedly, didn't seem to be very much to begin with. "Yang!" Unfortunately, it seemed that Yang was dead set on Ruby making more friends, and dragged the younger sister over to the girl at the wall. With a sigh, Jaune got to his feet, and followed. It would be too heartless to just leave Ruby to her fate like that.

"Hello~!" Yang waved, the girl peering over her book. Letting go of Ruby, who crossed her arms, Yang simply smiled. "I believe you two might know each other?"

The mystery girl raised a brow. "Aren't you the girl that exploded this morning?"

Ruby gave a nervous chuckle. "Yeah, that's me. My name's Ruby, but you can call me..." Whatever she was about to say, the look of horror on her face said that whatever she was going to say seemed like enough of a bad idea to dissuade her from getting the words out. "You know what? Just call me Ruby."

The girl went back to reading. "Okay...?"

Yang rolled her eyes. "And I'm Yang, Ruby's older sister! What's your name?"

The girl glanced up. "Blake."

Jaune sighed, and glanced to the book Blake was reading. "So, is the book any good?"

Three sets of eyes turned to him, causing the young Arc to flinch. Blinking, Blake glanced down to the book. "Yes. It is."

Ruby shuffled a bit. "So, what's it about?"

Blake moved her attention to Ruby. "It's about a man with two souls, both of them fighting for control."

Jaune scratched the back of his head. "Sounds like a good read."

Blake nodded. "It is. I don't think I got your name yet."

The young man smiled. "Jaune. Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls of the tongue. L-" Jaune bit his tongue to keep the rest from coming out. "Never mind."

"I love books." Ruby said to Blake. "Yang used to read to me before bed every night."

Before anybody could say another word, a somewhat familiar voice spoke up. "Will you quiet down? Some of us are trying to sleep, you know?"

Turning, Ruby blanched, while Jaune felt his heart soar. Weiss, his snow angel, walked over to the group, glaring at them all, especially Jaune and Ruby. As Yang and Weiss made eye contact, they both yelled out, loud enough to wake the few people that had managed to fall asleep, "Oh, not you again!"

Ruby and Jaune looked at each other in fear. Taking the middle ground, Ruby spoke up. "Shh! Guys, Weiss is right, people are trying to sleep, we don't need to be this loud. Yang, please..."

Weiss's glare returned to Ruby. "Oh, so _now _you're on my side?"

Jaune frowned. "It sounds to me like she's been trying to be on your side this entire time."

Huffing and crossing her arms, Weiss ground out. "I guess she should have been more careful then."

And just as fast as he had fallen for her, Jaune had realized that her beauty had blinded his sense. But before anybody could get any more words out, a voice from behind Jaune spoke up, and sent a chill down his spine. "You know, I was _really_ hoping that nobody would be this loud, but it seems I can't have a single moment to myself." Gulping in fear, Jaune turned around, to see his mentor, his duster nowhere present. "Now. I don't care who started this, or whatever childish excuses any of you have, because I will end it by knocking all of you onto your asses and _forcing _you to sleep if I have to."

That sent a shiver to everyone present. Yang turned, and opened her mouth to explain. "But-!"

The glare she received from the old man shut her up quickly. "What part of 'I don't care' do you not understand, young woman?" Shaking his head, Grayson let out a sigh. "Look, for whatever reason, Port, the person that was _supposed to _be here to watch over all of you little-" Cutting himself off, the old man took in a deep breath. "For whatever reason, he shirked his duties onto me, for the _third _year in a row. So, I'm going to give you all this one chance to shut up, and go the fuck to sleep."

Any normal person would have kept their thoughts to themselves. Unfortunately for Weiss, she didn't seem to understand what normal was. "But, sir they-!"

Jaune stepped away, gently pulling Ruby along with him. Grayson's hand raised up, cutting Weiss from whatever she was about to say, and flicked her in the forehead. "Schnee. Shut up. Just for that, if you and Tits McGee over here pass initiation, you two are going to have a _very _special assignment." The sadistic grin on his mentor's face reminded the young Arc of all the training sessions the two had, and silently prayed for the girls' souls.

Jaune nudged Ruby, and once the girl looked to his direction, the young man gestured to the sleeping bags, to which she responded with a simple nod. The two were thankful that they weren't in danger of the old man's wrath, Jaune especially, since he had lived through that hell.

* * *

Waking up was something Jaune had nearly had a heart attack over, due to him and Ruby waking in in a tangle of limbs. Yang really hadn't been kidding when she said that Ruby liked her cuddles. He had tried to get up without waking either of the sisters, but it seemed the movement was too much for Ruby to sleep through. As Jaune was moving his arm out from her grip, she let out a yawn, and slowly opened her eyes, and let out a squeak, tumbling back, right into Yang.

Somehow, the blonde girl just kept snoring through what little weight her sister had being dropped right onto her. Getting up, Ruby glanced down to her older sister, and let out a sigh full of relief. Looking down to the blonde that she had slept with, not in the way Yang would poke fun, and offered her hand. "Sorry about that. Haven't really woken up next to someone like that in years. Heh..."

Jaune couldn't but think that the situation was a bit of a reverse of their meeting yesterday. "It's fine. I was kinda expecting it." Taking the hand offered, Jaune looked around seeing that there were other people that were waking up, although he wasn't sure if it had been because of Ruby or not. "We should probably get our things." Ruby nodded, blushing a bit.

* * *

The lockers in this place made no sense, Jaune decided with a firm conviction. He had no idea what had happened to the locker he had put his gear in, but it seemed to have magically moved to another one. Looking at the locker numbers, then to the paper in his hands. Not even the map showed the right locker numbers. With a sigh and a shake of his head, Jaune crumpled the paper up, and threw it over his shoulder, not caring where it landed. Just another day for Jaune Arc, pretender extraordinaire.

"So, Pyrrha, have you have you given any thought to teams?" It was Weiss, and while his heart still skipped a beat whenever he saw her, he couldn't help but frown. Blinking, Jaune narrowed his eyes to the locker next to hers. Well, that was the locker number given to him. Weird, he couldn't remember exactly where the number was, but he could swear it was a bit further than this.

Shrugging, Jaune walked to the locker, opened it, and found Crocea Mors, along with the pistol he had yet to name, mostly because his mentor had told him that he would need to get a custom one, maybe something with a little more oomph. To the side, he could hear the conversation continue. "Actually, I was planning to let the chips fall where they may."

Jaune nodded, that wasn't exactly a bad idea. But then again, Grayson had told him that life usually gave the good people the worst hands, so there was definitely something to think about. Apparently, Weiss had the same idea. "I was thinking, maybe we could be on a team together."

"That sounds grand!" There was something in the way the Pyrrha girl said that that came across as a little bit fishy.

Wait. Pyrrha. Pyrrha Nikos. The girl that the old huntsman had told him about. Fastening each strap of the holster for his gun, Jaune turned to the two girls. "Excuse me, but I couldn't help but hear the name Pyrrha." Sliding past Weiss, which earned a indignant 'Hey!', Jaune held out a hand, a small smile on his face. "I'm Jaune Arc. And from what I've heard from my Sensei, you must be 'The Invincible Girl'."

The smile on the redhead's twitched, although he wasn't sure if it was his imagination or not. "Oh, really? Is there anything else your mentor said about me?"

Jaune's smile died, as a frown took over, his eyes glancing down. "Well, not to sound depressing, but he said that nobody's invincible forever, something about personal experience."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that..."

Jaune shook his head. "I said that too, and his smacked me in the back of my head, and said that it was decades ago. I guess he's come to terms with it. Although I can't really imagine losing anybody like he did. Especially not my family."

Pyrrha nodded. "Neither can I..."

It seemed that Weiss had had enough of the dark atmosphere the conversation had taken. "Well, I'm sure this has been an interesting topic, but I really do think that we must be getting out of here. Don't want to be late."

As if on cue, the speakers crackled to life. "Would all first-year students report to Beacon Cliff for Initiation. Again, all first-year students report to Beacon Cliff, immediately."

Huh, that was nearly perfect timing. Pyrrha sighed. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Jaune."

The young Arc nodded. "Likewise." The two girls departed, leaving Jaune alone.

At least for a few seconds. "Well, that could have gone worse." Turning, he saw Yang and Ruby, the sisters smiling.

Jaune shrugged. "Yeah, probably. At least I didn't flirt horribly with either of them."

Snickering, Yang punched the young man in the arm, thankfully the blow was dampened by his immense aura. "Man, that would have been awkward and embarrassing. Awkbarrassing?" Yang grinned, and nodded, as if the action had set the made up word in stone. "Yep, that's gonna be a thing from now on."

Ruby and Jaune exchanged a glance, both of them unsure if the older sister was joking or not. In an attempt to get everybody's mind off of the word, Ruby cleared her throat. "Well, at least Weiss didn't yell at you for something, so there's that."

Chuckling, Jaune nodded. "Yeah, there _is _that. So, have you two decided on teams?"

That caused a quick glance between the sisters. Yang rubbed the back of her head through the mess that was her hair. "Uh, we were talking about that, and we weren't really able to come to a decision. Heh..."

Ruby crossed her arms, pouted, and kicked the floor. "More like she doesn't want me on her team. Says that being on a different team would 'help me break out of my shell.'" The younger girl pouted even harder as she paraphrased her sister's words.

Jaune could feel tension hang in the air, and quickly placed a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "Hey, if she doesn't want to be on a team with you, I'm open to it. We can be awkward together."

Ruby looked up to Jaune, eyes searching his face. "Really? You wouldn't mind being on a team with me?"

Jaune chuckled. "Of course not. You got here two whole years earlier than anybody else. If she wants you to 'break out of your shell'." Jaune raised his hands, and used air quotes. "Then we'll do it together."

Ruby smiled. "Thanks, Jaune..." Turning her head to Yang, the younger sister grinned. "See, Yang? _This _is how older siblings are supposed to act. You gotta be supportive, but you can't just throw me out to the wolves."

Yang sighed. "Jeez, you're really hounding me on this, huh?" With a shake of her head, the older sister walked over, and pulled both Jaune and Ruby into a hug. "We'll see how things play out, alright?"

Jaune wasn't sure how to react, feeling like he was intruding on a personal moment for the two. "Uh, well, not to be that guy or anything, but we should probably be getting to the cliff."

That caused both sisters to jerk back, and exclaim in unison. "Oh no! Come on!" What followed was a chain of events that sent the three sprawling onto the floor. First, Yang grabbed Jaune and Ruby's hand, with Ruby doing the same, then, Ruby flew forward, faster than Jaune could see, causing a whiplash for the three, tumbling over themselves. Jaune groaned and rubbed his head, standing up quickly.

"Well, maybe we should be a little more coordinated, kinda like a team, huh?" Jaune grinned, before the two sisters booed. "Jeez, first Sensei, now you two. Why can't anyone appreciate my comedy?"

* * *

**AN: So, a few things. First off, over a hundred followers. So, new personal record, and a small milestone.**

**Second, the poll results have come in, with a few reviews and PMs. It looks like teams are staying canon, at least until I maybe integrate an idea that a certain somebody had run by me. (It's probably gonna happen because I really like the idea.) Until the next chapter.**


	6. First Step

The cliffs were just as beautiful as the last time he had seen them. In line with the other potential students, Jaune rolled his shoulders, unable to shake the nervous feeling in both the pit of his stomach, and the back of his head. This was it, this was the day that would tell if his training had paid off. If his mentor had molded him from a joke of a boy to a man that could cut through any obstacle.

In front of the students, were Headmaster Ozpin, and Glynda. Jaune's attention was focused on them, certain that there would be another speech. "For years," And there it was, "You have all trained to become warriors. And today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

Glynda pushed her glasses up. "Now, I'm sure you've all heard rumors about the assignment of teams. Allow us to put an end to your confusion." Her lips twitched into the barest hint of a smile. "Each of you will be given teammates. Today."

From his side, Jaune heard Ruby make a scared whining noise. Unfortunately, Ozpin carried on without a glance to the girl. "These teammates will be with you for your entire time here at Beacon. So it's in your best interest to be paired with someone you can work well with." Ozpin paused to take a sip from his mug of coffee. "That said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

Well, Jaune was regretting that he hadn't made a bet on Ozpin only mentioning this at the last minute. Grayson didn't seem to know Ozpin as well as he thought. Shaking the thought away, Jaune returned his attention to the headmaster.

"Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path. Or you _will_ die." Well, that was something he had been told for the past month, so that was good. "You will be monitored and graded during the initiation. But our instructors will not intervene." The words reminded Jaune that somebody was probably going to die. After all, his mentor had told him that it was usually at least one every year. "You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path, containing several relics. Each pair must choose one, and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Any questions?"

Jaune raised his hand. "Uh, yeah, sir-"

"Good! Now, get in positions." Jaune couldn't help but feel a chill go down his spine as he was ignored.

Jaune frowned as he heard the sound of student being launched. Looking down, he saw the plate he was standing on looked like all the others. That wasn't good for him, considering Grayson had never launched him off a height like this, and he wasn't sure if his aura could handle the fall. Maybe if he focused it all. With a shake of his head, Jaune tried again. "Yeah, so, this 'landing strategy'. What exactly is that?"

Ozpin took another sip from his mug. "Oh, you'll be falling."

Jaune gulped. Yeah, that's what he thought, as he heard the sound of another student launch. "Right, so, are you handing out parachutes, or are we going to be on our own for this?"

Ozpin smiled, "I'm afraid for you that it will be the latter. After all, a hunter must be prepared for any situation."

"Like being catapulted off the side of a cliff? I don't think that situation is going to be happening, like, at all."

"Oh, you'd be surprised how often it happens. Just look to your left."

And Jaune did as instructed, seeing only three students beside himself. Turning to the headmaster, he leveled a glare at the man. "You're even worse than Grayson."

Ozpin chuckled. "Oh, I do try. I'll be sure to tell him you said as much."

Jaune's eyes widened, and he held up his hands. "Uh, no, that's fine, he doesn't need to hear abou-" Jaune's sentence was cut off as he was launched from the side of the cliff into the air, and a very masculine scream resounded out from his mouth. Looking back to the rapidly shrinking cliff, Jaune could just barely make out the shape of Ozpin, as he took another sip from his mug. What a bastard.

But, the young Arc had more pressing matters to attend to. Like landing. Yeah, he probably should work on that. As the sound of wind roaring past him nearly deafened him, Jaune tried to right himself in the air, which was a lot easier said than done, considering he didn't have many options of maneuvering. But, before he could think, much less act on his situation, he was suddenly jerked to one side, a javelin spearing right into his hood, which eventually stuck him into the top of a tree. "Thank you!" Jaune yelled out as loud as he could, unsure who had made a landing strategy _for _him.

From the distance, Jaune could hear a very faint 'I'm sorry!'. Shrugging, Jaune gripped the javelin that had pinned him to the tree, and tugged, and as he felt it shift, he smiled. A few more tugs, and the weapon popped out of the tree, which meant that it sent both it, and Jaune to the ground. Calling his aura up as he didn't really wish to become a skewered piece of meat, the young Arc felt the tip grind against his aura, before bouncing away, into the dirt.

"Ugh, that could have gone better, but hey, at least I'm not a splatter of meat against the ground." Picking himself up, Jaune dusted his clothes and armor, and checked his weapons, happy to see that they looked the same he had always been. Hearing a rustle from nearby, Jaune turned, and unsheathed his sword, raising his shield. From the bushes, Weiss emerged. Blinking, Jaune lowered his shield, a smile coming across his face. "Well, I guess this makes us partners, then?"

Weiss stared at the young Arc for a few seconds, before turning around abruptly. "Sorry, but I already have a partner." Before she could take a step, a red blur smashed into Weiss. As she tumbled onto the ground, Ruby flipped onto her front, a few feet in front of Jaune.

"Hey Ruby. How's your day been?" Offering his hand, Jaune helped Ruby to her feet. "It looks like it isn't going as good as we thought it would."

Ruby sighed. "No, it's going fine. It's just... Well, I bowled over my partner just now. Let me go see if she's alright." Ruby sighed, and walked over to Weiss. "Uh, Weiss. Hello?"

The girl in white seemed to be okay. Physically at least, because the glare she gave to Ruby would be able to freeze hell over. "Ruby, I've decided that I hate you."

Ouch. Jaune walked over to the javelin that had skewered his hood, and tugged it out of the ground. It looked familiar. "Um, excuse me." Jerking back, Jaune turned, and saw the girl from earlier, Pyrrha. "I was wondering if you had found a partner yet."

The young Arc chuckled, and tossed the weapon back to Pyrrha, who had caught it almost effortlessly. "Well, looks like those two are partners, and I haven't seen anyone else, so that settles that." Sheathing his sword, Jaune held out a hand, which Pyrrha shook. "Alright partner, let's get going."

As the two were prepared to walk off, Ruby shouted out. "Guys wait up!" Turning, Jaune saw that Ruby had helped Weiss get to her feet, although the girl was still livid. "We, uh, we don't exactly know where to go..."

Weiss glared at the younger girl. "Um, excuse you? I know _exactly _where I'm going. North, just like headmaster Ozpin said." With those words, she turned and began to walk.

Pyrrha held up a finger. "Weiss, that's west." The Schnee stopped, turned, and began to walk again. "That's south." Weiss froze, and turned, raised a brow to Pyrrha, who nodded.

"See? I know exactly where I'm going." Weiss crossed her arms, and puffed out her rather flat chest. Jaune shook his head, mostly at the girl's attitude.

"Look, let's just get going, who knows how much time we have before all of those relics are gone."

That got the attention of the girls, and with that, the four began walking.

* * *

As the four approached the cave, Jaune couldn't help but feel a sense of trepidation in the back of his mind. "So, do you think this is it?"

Weiss and Pyrrha looked at Jaune, the Schnee with annoyance, and the champion with a smile that told him that it very clearly wasn't the ruins they were searching for. Ruby, on the other hand, didn't seem to care, and nearly ran straight in, if it wasn't for Weiss grabbing the girl by her hood. "Ack! Weiss! This could be where the relics are!"

"Or, and here's a thought, it might be a waste of time. Time that we are getting graded on." Unfortunately, Jaune was already in the process of making a torch.

"Yeah, and what happens if the relics _are _in there, and we never find them?" That caused the heiress to sigh.

"Fine, but we're going to be as quick as we can, and once it's clear that there aren't any relics inside, we're leaving. Got it?"

"Sure." Lighting the torch, Jaune let out a quick shout of triumph. "Alright, stay close."

With that, Jaune took the first steps into the cave, the others following closely.

For the first few seconds, things were looking not that bad, before Jaune tripped lightly on a stalagmite, causing the torch to fly out of his hand, and going out in a puddle of water, casting darkness around the group. Jaune sighed, and he felt a hand on his shoulder, nearly giving him a heart attack. "Wh- Pyrrha, that you?"

"Yes." Silence for a few seconds. "Jaune, do you feel that?"

The young Arc let out a sad chuckle. "Complete and utter regret at every action that led to this moment? Because I do."

Weiss let out a bark of laughter, "I knew this was going to be a complete waste of time. Come on, let's go, Ruby."

"No. He made the choice, and I'm not going to abandon him this early."

"What?! Ruby, he-"

"Quiet!" Pyrrha raised her voice for a second, which echoed loudly for longer. "No. It feels... warm."

There was silence, before Jaune laughed nervously. "Uh, well, are you sure that's not just because there are four of us in a small space?"

"I'm not sure. Let's keep moving."

As the group walked in darkness, slowly as to not trip, there was a sense of apprehension that was almost tangible. Before long, the group could see a faint glow. As the group neared the light, they could see a large glowing orange object. Jaune looked at it. "Do you guys think this is the relic?"

The three girls backed away slowly, and Ruby whispered loudly. "No. Jaune, that's a Deathstalker stinger."

Jaune blinked, and tried to think back to his time in the forest. Deathstalkers were the ones that looked like scorpions. But that was impossible, the thing in front of him was as large as his torso, and the Deathstalkers he had seen never got even as big as half of that. "Uh, are you sure?"

The three nodded. "Jaune, just back away slowly, and we'll come go back the way we came."

Jaune nodded. That sounded like a good idea. After all, why waste energy on a fight that you didn't really need to start? "Okay, let me just..." Jaune didn't finish, as another glow, this one an angry red, shone upon Jaune. Looking back, he saw four pairs of eyes. "Run!"

* * *

As it turned out, they had a bit of a trek to actually reach the ruins. Seeing as they had been sprinting full force for two minutes straight, Jaune was starting to run out of breath. "Guys... I... oh no..."

Looking to the others, Jaune saw that Weiss wasn't doing that much better. She was glaring at him, venom in her eyes. "I... blame you... for this..."

"That's...fair..." As the trees became scarce, they eventually broke through the treeline. Seeing large ruins, with what he had to assume were relics with the group of people. "Hey! People! Oh gods... everything... help!" Jaune called out, hoping to get the attention of the others.

Among the other group was Yang, who burst into action, quickly deploying Ember Celica, and began to fire away at the Deathstalker, drawing its attention away from the four. Running to the side, the large Grimm ran straight past its original targets, now focusing on the one attacking it.

Unfortunately for the Grimm, Weiss Schnee was not one to stand idly by. Drawing her weapon, the cylinder of dust spun, before settling, the blade glowing white briefly. She swung the sword, and out came ice Dust, the projectile hitting the legs of the Deathstalker, temporarily incapacitating it. "Ha! Serves... you right..." The girl groaned, before doubling over, gasping for air.

Jaune wasn't too much better. Breathing in deeply, Jaune weakly walked to the group, seeing chess pieces on pedestals. "Huh, I guess these are the relics, then?" He picked one up, a rook, by the looks of it. "And all this does is reinforce that I have poor judgment skills..." The young Arc shook his head, sighing.

A hand was placed on his shoulder, causing his head to turn, to see a smiling Ruby, knight piece in her other hand. "Hey, it's only been a day, right?"

The knight couldn't help but chuckle at having his own words reflected back at him. "Right. Come on, we should get moving, no reason to fight that thing when it can barely move, we'd just be wasting energy."

Ruby nodded. "Right, let's get going."

Before anyone could say anything, or even move for that matter, feathers larger than the entire body of anyone present began to rain down, sinking into the ground and stone. "Cover!" Jaune yelled out, instinctively taking charge for only a moment. Reaching down, Jaune pulled up his shield, sword still sheathed. Looking over the top, the young Arc took in a sight that made his blood run cold for a single instant. "Uh, guys. Unless I'm seeing things, that's a really big Nevermore."

It seemed that was the case, due to muttered curses from the people assembled. "Great, looks like we're all dying together, then." Yang growled, and fired a few shots at the flying Grimm.

Frowning, Jaune looked to everyone. "Guys, we don't have much time before it circles back, and I think I can see the ice keeping that thing," Jaune pointed to the Deathstalker struggling in the ice, "Cracking. We need to move. _Now!_" Jaune shouted out, wanting everyone to move.

The eight began to run, Jaune and Weiss getting a second wind from the sudden adrenaline coming from a very surprising attack. Running deeper into the ruins, the sound of the Deathstalker breaking free from its makeshift prison could be heard from behind them, prompting everyone to run even faster.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the cliff the students had started on, a seething Grayson was making his way to the Headmaster, the one that gave him his paycheck. "So, Oz, funny thing that you had these fucking _catapults _installed. I mean, really funny!" Rubbing at his face, the old huntsman gave a sigh. "Look, I just want to know; _why?!"_

Unfortunately, Ozpin wasn't the one to answer, instead the woman beside them speaking up. "As much as I would prefer to side with you Grayson, Ozpin has given a reason proficient enough to warrant this rather..." Glynda paused, from the way here eyes were glancing about, the old man guess it was to find the right word to use in this situation. "Unorthodox, approach. He says that danger can come at any moment, even during a flight, so this is to simulate a crash landing, in unknown territory."

Grayson grit his teeth, unable to poke any glaring holes in that logic. "At that point we might as well push them out of the bullhead on the way here." Looking at the live feed, the old man zeroed in on the one displaying his protege in battle against a rather large Deathstalker, the blonde firing at the stinger while a young man with black hair clung onto the Grimm for dear life. "Ozpin, I thought you said you had the Deathstalker taken care of." The tone in Grayson's voice was a mix of a deadpan, and seething anger.

The headmaster hummed, then glanced to Grayson, as if just noticing him for the first time. "It is. Just look how well they're handling it. Truly prodigies, all of them. Ah, that reminds me of something Arc said to me earlier. Something about me being worse than you, whatever that may mean to you."

Grayson blinked, then chuckled. "Really? Well, I guess I have to make life hell for him once he gets out of this." At the back of his mind, the old hunter prayed that Jaune didn't try to take on the large Grimm directly. "Oh, that reminds me, how's that special program you talked about coming along?"

Ozpin's attention turned from the feed to Grayson, a twinkle in his eye that nearly sent a shiver down the old man's spine. "Oh, it's coming along splendidly, and I even have the perfect candidate to teach the kids."

From the way the headmaster said that, Grayson had a pretty good idea who it would be. With a sigh, Grayson turned to look back at the live feed. "Just make sure to give the new students a day or two to get adjusted." Then, a grin spread across Grayson's face. "It fucks with their heads a little bit more. And it's all in the fine details..."

Glynda shook her head, and sighed. "Honestly you two, taking pleasure in the students' suffering..."

Grayson let out a snort, turning to the woman. "Oh really? And tell me, how many times have you humiliated the new kids in the training rooms? The ones that think they're hot shit, and you just force feed them some humble pie, bite after bite?"

Glynda very suddenly seemed very interesting at the events displaying live. "I don't have the faintest idea what you're talking about." Grayson almost couldn't believe how sincere she sounded.

Chuckling, the old man returned his eyes to the feed. It seemed that the students handling the Deathstalker had everything under control.

* * *

There was nothing under control about the situation, Jaune thought as he fell into the dirt, the Deathstalker screeching in pain at having its own stinger smashed deep into its head. Unfortunately, the stone bridge it settled on had been sturdier than anyone had thought. On the plus side, the blow that Nora had inflicted on it had weakened it. As it scuttled backward, Jaune and Pyrrha rushed forward, blades and shields at the ready. The Grimm turned, and weakly struck out with its pincers, the blows scraping off uselessly against the defense of the two.

Jaune drew Crocea Mors back, and plunged the blade deep into one of the beast's eyes, with the redhead doing the same. The Grimm twitched, and its tail sprung forward, the instinct taking over, which stopped short of either student harmlessly. From behind, Ren jumped high, and as gravity brought him down, he stabbed his weapons into two more eyes. With a small chitter, the Deathstalker seized up, and promptly went limp.

As the three ripped their blades free from the creature of darkness, the man in green fell onto the ground, and groaned. "I would be fine with never doing that again..."

Jaune chuckled. "All in favor, say aye."

Ren and Pyrrha both sounded out in unison. "Aye."

"Notion carried. That was an absolute nightmare, especially once I saw it didn't fall into the gorge..." Jaune sheathed his sword, and sat down, his eyes roaming to the ruins that Ruby and her group had been forced to. And promptly let his mouth fall open. Currently, the giant Nevermore was pressed against the large cliff, and being dragged up, Jaune wasn't sure if he was seeing things, but it looked like Ruby herself was rubbing of the cliff.

Yep. That's exactly who it was, and once she approached the top, all the momentum carried her upwards, and decapitated the Grimm. Jaune blinked, not sure how to put into words to express what he just saw. Fortunately, he didn't have to. Nora squealed. "Did you guys see that?! She just decapitated a giant Nevermore! This is the best school _ever!_"

Jaune smiled, and nodded. "Yeah, I think this is going to be a great time."

* * *

Grayson blinked at the feed. So, that was a thing that happened. Jeez, leave it to the young prodigy to make all the ripples. "Well, looks like that Ruby girl is gonna fit right in. Already showing feats beyond her years." The old man smiled, wondering how well she would adjust to being here early, if anyone would get jealous, or even heap praises on the girl. From what he had observed the other night, his protege had gotten along well with the girl, which probably meant she was just as much of a wallflower.

Ozpin's eyes narrowed in, and he took a sip from his mug. "Yes, I'm sure she'll be just fine..."

Grayson glanced at the headmaster. "Ease up there Oz, you're giving off some predator vibes." At the words, Ozpin's eyes widened, and he jerked the tablet away, gagging loudly. "That's the correct response."

The headmaster glared. "Grayson, I would appreciate it if you never suggested a thing like that again. I deal with enough problems as it is," Grayson rolled his eyes, knowing that he usually just dumped whatever he didn't like doing onto Glynda. "And I don't need any rumors of being a pedophile circulating. Especially as we're accepting a student two years early."

"Then maybe don't be so fucking creepy about her. Honestly, it's like you're obsessed with her, considering how much you're going on about her eyes." Ozpin stiffened, much to Grayson's amusement. "Yeah, I've heard you mentioning that a few times in the past two days. And before you say anything, yes, I've heard the silver-eyed warrior legend."

Ozpin recovered, and shook his head. "My interests in Miss Rose are purely as a mentor is interested in a student's growth. Almost like you and Jaune Arc."

Grayson shrugged. "Hey, as long as you're not doing anything that would make me want to put your head on a pike, I really don't care for the reasons on why." Looking at the feed one last time, Grayson smiled. The kid had really come a long way in a short amount of time, so little time that he wondered why Nicholas hadn't even tried to train the kid.

* * *

This was it. The moment that decided who he would be interacting with for the next four years. Jaune waited patiently, until the moment that him, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren were called onto the stage. "Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, and Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From today forward, you shall be known as... Team JNPR." Jaune beamed, proud of himself for the first time in his life. "Led by... Jaune Arc!" Wait, what?

"Huh?" Jaune blinked, confused. "Did you say 'led by?'"

Ozpin nodded. "Congratulations, young man." With that, he took a sip from his ever present mug.

Well, that made things a bit more complicated than he had thought. Not only had he faked his transcripts, but he was now a leader of a team. That was a lot more responsibility than he knew what to do with. Gulping, Jaune only prayed that he could find the courage to tell his team that he wasn't qualified for the position, and maybe even about how he had actually gotten into Beacon. But then a thought struck him, and he stiffened. What would his mentor say about this? What sadistic torture would he be put through, to actually me made into a true leader? Jaune nearly fainted from the fear.


	7. First Class

Jaune struggled to keep his eyes open, and he could feel his life leaving him. Was this how it ended? After all he had done, just to fall so early? He tried, he really did, and he was pretty sure nobody could blame him if his journey ended here. Looking around, he saw others fighting the same battle as him, some giving up entirely, their bodies going limp. If it ended all the same, then what was the point in trying so hard? So, he did what made the most sense, and gave up, his body joining the others as a limp pile of meat.

And promptly smacked his forehead on the wood in front of him, snapping to alertness. Rubbing his head, he saw the other students suffer the same fate. Man, when he had been made leader, he thought there would be a lot more exciting than _this_. The professor, Peter Port, had been droning on and on for so long that Jaune had thought for a full minute the teacher's semblance had been time manipulation. But no, he was just talking. And talking.

And talking.

Shaking his head, Jaune propped his chin with his hand. This was worse than his training with Grayson, if only because the training had fueled him with adrenaline, and pain to keep him awake. That, and the results of getting better, not only in technique, but physically as well. But this, it seemed like Port was just spewing out garbage, and slapping some moral lessons in there and called it a lesson. "And so, with only a pebble to protect me, along with my ingenious, I charged forward like a man with nothing to lose..." Jaune began tuning out the lecture again, wishing that he had Grayson's class, something he hadn't thought possible.

Something nudged his side, and he turned, seeing his partner wide awake, attentive as ever. She whispered to him, giving him a sidelong glance. "Jaune, please stay awake. You never know when he's going to say something important."

With a sigh, Jaune returned his attention to Port. The jolly man had cleared his throat rather loudly, and looked in the direction of Team RWBY. "In the end, the Beowolf was no match for my sheer tenacity, and I returned to my village with the beast in captivity, and my head held high." The man gave a bow, which earned a quiet cough. "The moral of the story; a true hunter is honorable, dependable, strategic, well educated, and wise!" Well, that seemed rather insightful. "So, who here believes themselves to be a _true _hunter?"

"I do, sir!" The volume of Weiss's voice startled Jaune, along with any sleeping students.

Professor Port hummed. "Well then, let's find out. Step forward, and face your opponent." The jolly man gestured to the cage that Jaune somehow hadn't noticed before. "You have five minutes to prep yourself."

Five minutes later, Weiss was at the front of the class, combat skirt ready. As she stood, the rest of her team shouted encouragements. She turned, and glared. "Ruby, I'm trying to focus!" Jaune blinked, unsure why Weiss had chosen to go after Ruby.

Ruby looked down, frowning. "Sorry..."

What followed was a pattern of Ruby shouting encouragement and advice, and Weiss yelling at her, until eventually the heiress killed the Boarbatusk, using the advise Ruby had given. As Port dismissed the class, Weiss glared at Ruby once more, before leaving. Jaune frowned. "The hell's her problem?" As he left the classroom, Jaune opened his scroll, and checked his schedule, his blood running cold. It was Survival Training, with Grayson Hunt. Suddenly it felt like whatever was up with Weiss needed to be remedied immediately. Turning, Jaune saw Weiss and Ruby, as he caught the last words the heiress spoke before walking off. "Not a team led by you."

Jaune walked up to Ruby, the young reaper looking sullen. "Hey, what was up with that?"

Ruby jumped, and upon seeing it was the blonde, sighed, her shoulders sinking. "Oh, hey..." Ruby poked the floor with the toe of her shoe. "Apparently, Weiss doesn't think I should be team leader. She thinks she 'deserves better.'" Ruby used air quotes. "What if she's right?"

Jaune blinked. "Uh, Ruby, I think we've said this a lot already, but it hasn't even been a full day. Nobody knows how this is going to turn out. Hell, I should probably be more worried about this than you are. I mean, sure, you're here two years early, and at first glance, that really shouldn't make you qualified. But that doesn't matter. What matters is your heart, and the brains to follow through. Something that Sensei taught me." Jaune smiled, placing a hand on the young reaper's shoulder.

Ruby smiled, then frowned. "But, what if I'm not smart enough? Or strong enough? Or...or..." Ruby breathed deeply. "What if I mess up, and get people hurt?"

Jaune sighed. "Ruby. We can't possibly know what yet. I mean, we've only had our first class. We should be in our second but-"

Ruby's eyes widened. "Oh no! I forgot about classes!" Reaching into her pocket, Ruby pulled our her scroll. "Uh, Survival Training?"

Jaune stiffened. Oh no, his mentor was going to be teaching both him and Ruby. At the same time. "What do you know? Me too..."

Ruby grabbed the blonde's hand, and began to run, her semblance causing his feet to lift from the floor. "We can't be late! Come on!"

* * *

Jaune and Ruby had made it on time, barely. They were at the Emerald Forest, yet again. This time, there were more people, including Nora, Ren, Yang, and Blake. SO maybe this class wouldn't be so bad. At least, that was the thought, up until Jaune heard chuckling coming from somewhere in the brush. "So, class. You may be wondering what _exactly _Survival Training entails. Well, don't worry." The old huntsman emerged, a grin on his face. Jaune gulped, and he could see some of the other students shivering. "It's simple, really. I'm going to teach you how to survive." In an instant, the grin on Grayson's face turned sadistic. "In damn near any situation that you can think of. After all, there's no better teacher than experience, right?"

Blake raise her hand. "Uh, professor, what exactly-"

Grayson grabbed a nearby branch, broke it from the tree, and tossed it at the girl, who ducked out of the way. "Shut up. You'll find out once I actually get started. But first, we need to settle on pairs. Pairs that aren't going to be the ones you formed during initiation. No, these will be randomly generated through this." The old teacher pulled out his scroll, and fumbled through it for a few minutes, before he frowned. "Okay, that's taking too long. Fuck it, I'll just call out names. First up Jaune Arc." The blonde knight shivered. "And Blake Belladonna. Your objective is to flee into the forest, and survive my wrath for ten minutes. So, I'll be giving you a two minute head start. Starting," Grayson tapped his scroll, a countdown of two minutes appearing, and started counting. "Now."

Jaune immediate sprung into action, running to Blake, and taking her hand. "We need to move, now!" Jaune ran into the forest, Blake giving a shout before she ripped her hand from his grasp.

"Jaune, what the hell?!" Blake glared, not that Jaune was able to catch it as he ran. "Jaune?"

The blonde gave the girl a glance. "Blake, trust me when I say that we can't beat him. The only thing we can hope to do is stay away. If worse comes to worst, I can buy you some time, I have more aura, and I've been training with him for the past month."

Blake's eyes widened. "Wait, you've _what?!_"

Jaune flinched, then returned his focus to running. "Yeah, I kinda ran into him before initiation, and he offered to train me. I mean, would you pass up a month of special lessons before the year even officially starts?"

Blake pondered that for a moment, before shrugging. "Well, when you put it like that, it would be stupid not to."

Jaune nodded. "Right. And, knowing Sensei, he's probably going to be giving us a single minute. Then he'll say something like there never being as much time as you think there is."

Blake stared ahead, not quite responding, before sighing. "Well, that's definitely one way to teach."

The two ran, definitely long than two minutes, and they were eventually forced to stop and rest. Breathing heavily, Jaune kept glancing around, his hand instinctively moving to where his sword should have been, before he remembered that Grayson hadn't allowed the students to get their weapons. "Great, we can't even fight back." Jaune rubbed his face.

Blake had closed her eyes, listening intently. "But he didn't have his weapons either, so, shouldn't you be able to hold him back?"

Jaune laughed. "Yeah, there's only one problem with that. Grayson is actually horrifyingly strong. He said something about using his aura to enhance his physical abilities one time during our sparring session. I wasn't really able to focus that day, I can only remember almost dying from dehydration."

Blake's eyes snapped open. "Oh. Right. Of course he can. Why wouldn't he? He's a teacher at Beacon after all..."

From somewhere behind them, the snap of a twig alerting the two. Jaune stepped in front of Blake, his hands coming up into the fighting stance that Grayson had beat into his muscles. From between the bushes, a raccoon appeared, looked at the two, and then continued on its way. The two let out a breath of relief, and Jaune laughed nervously. "I mean, we ran for a while, maybe he's having trouble tracking us down?"

"Sorry kid, but you actually leave a trail that a damn toddler could follow."

Blake gasped, and jumped, while Jaune screamed in a very manly way, and the two turned, to see Grayson leaning against a tree. Jaune felt sweat start to form on his brow. The old teacher was smiling, and didn't seem too interested in the kids in front of him, almost as if he had all the time in the world. Jaune glanced to Blake, and furrowed his brow. "Blake, I'll keep him back for as long as I can, you need to run, and don't look back."

Blake looked between the old man, and the blonde, before she sighed. "You're taking this too seriously..." She turned, and ran off, the sound of rustling growing quiet after only a few seconds.

Grayson grinned, looking right into his protege's eyes, grey meeting blue. "Real heroic kid. Unfortunately, sometimes things like this don't matter." He lunged forward, navy blue flashing dimly across his legs. He brought his leg up, and kicked the blonde straight in the stomach, launching the young man off the ground, and into a tree, then straight through the tree. "Remember Jaune, this class is _Survival _Training. Meaning the only goal is to keep yourself alive."

Jaune struggled to his feet, rubbing at his side. "Sorry Sensei, but I can't just let you torment the others like you did to me. Nobody should have to go through the hell that I did."

The old man snickered. "Sorry, but that's not something you can realistically do. But you're welcome to try. After all..." In only a moment, Grayson was in front Jaune, fist cocked back. "That's what being a hunter is all about."

The blonde ducked, just in time to avoid a hook that would have drained more aura than he would have liked. He jumped back, Grayson following right after. The old man sent out a roundhouse kick straight to Jaune's side, the blonde unable to retaliate in time. As he felt the air get knocked out of him, Jaune doubled over. As he raised his head, the knight saw that Grayson had raised his foot straight up. "Shit..."

Grayson brought the foot down, dropping an axe kick right into the back of Jaune's head. "Sorry, but I only have three and a half minutes to catch Belladonna, and I have a few questions for the girl." Jaune didn't respond, in too much pain to register the words his mentor was saying. "Hey kid, you still awake?" A groan answered the teacher. "Well, I can't just leave you like this." With a sigh, Grayson scooped Jaune's limp body, and heaved the young man over his shoulder. "Just pretend you can't hear whatever I'm going to talk to Belladonna about, okay?" Another groan. "Good."

Grayson sighed, and began to run in the direction Blake had gone off. It hadn't taken very long to find a trail, although it was very faint. The teacher slowed as the signs of the girl became fewer and fewer. Eventually, Grayson set Jaune down against a tree, the blonde groaning. As Grayson chuckled at the state of his protege, he couldn't help but feel a pair of eyes on his back. Standing up, the old teacher turned, zeroing in on the presence he felt.

The huntsman pumped his aura into his legs, and lunged, straight into the top of a tree. As soon as he left the ground, Blake darted away, her eyes wide. Grayson followed, a casual smile on his face. "Well, hello Miss _Belladonna_. Can I ask you a personal question?"

"What?!" Blake didn't get an immediate answer, as grabbed her by the throat, and threw her to the ground, a small crater forming.

Grayson landed, and walked to the girl, crouched down, and smiled. "You see, I'm wondering what someone like you is doing so far from home. I mean, you actually look a _lot _like Kali Belladonna, wife to Ghira Belladonna, former leader of the White Fang. So I'm going out on a limb and assuming you're hiding your trait." Grayson stood up, and shrugged. "Eh, not like it's my place to question why you're hiding like this. Hell, Jaune over there has some secrets too. Maybe you two can bond over that. He could use more friends. You too, for that matter." Grayson shook his head. "Damn, I've been rambling like a geezer. Why don't you ask me something?"

Blake took in a deep breath, and shakily got to her feet. The old man blinked, watching the girl, ready to catch her in case she ran. "Who... the hell... are you?" The words were rasped out, and she winced at every other syllable.

Grayson looked to the ground, shame pooling in his gut. "Jeez, kid. Did I really throw you that hard? Be sure to get to the nurse before your next class. Well, to answer you're question; I'm not some racist that hates Faunus or anything like that. I'm just an old huntsman that's curious about the people coming to the school. After all, I wouldn't want any White Fang managing to get in here, and blowing themselves up to send a message or anything like that."

Blake glared. "They aren't... like that." It seemed the girl wasn't having as much trouble getting the words out.

Grayson blinked, then stood to his full height of well over six feet. "Oh, so you're a White Fang apologist. I mean, I can't really blame you since your parents were all about the peaceful solution. It's very unfortunate that it didn't work." With a sigh, Grayson reached into his pocket, pulling out his scroll, where it displayed twenty seconds counting down. "Well, I suppose you've answered well enough for now, but don't think I'm letting you off the hook. As a reward, you get another question."

Blake breathed deeply. "Why are you... so interested in me?"

Grayson let out a snort. "Please, don't flatter yourself. I also have an eye on the Schnee girl. Really makes me wonder why she's here in the first place." Before he could say anything else, the scroll began beeping, signalling the countdown had reached zero. "Well, that's time up. Congratulations, you and Jaune Arc are getting extra credit for managing to stay conscious for the time allotted to you." Grayson pocketed his scroll, and moved to Jaune, hefting the young man over his shoulder. The huntsman glanced to the girl. "Hey, can you walk at all?"

Blake looked down to her legs, and saw that her knees were shaking. She took a step forward, and collapsed to one knee. She shook her head. "I..."

Grayson sighed. "Damn, I guess I really overdid it. Still getting a feel for how much aura all the new kids have." The old man walked to the girl, and though it took a few tries, Grayson managed to heft the girl onto his other shoulder. "Keep hands and feet within the vehicle for the duration of the ride." The huntsman chuckled.

Jaune groaned, and shook his head. "Huh? Where...?" Turning his head, Jaune saw Blake, blue eyes meeting amber. It took a few seconds for the situation to kick in, and when it did, the young knight couldn't help but laugh bitterly. "Ha, sorry Blake, I guess I wasn't good enough to keep Sensei back for long enough..."

Blake blinked, confused. "What? Jaune... no..." It sounded like talking still hurt a bit. "We did it. We passed, with extra credit, too."

Grayson nodded, before remembering that neither of the students could see his head. "She's right kid. You bought her enough time that I couldn't knock her out before time was up." Grayson kept walking, before something that Jaune said suddenly struck him. "Shit, kid, did you tell her about the training I gave you? 'Cause if not, I just kinda look like an asshole if you meant to keep that a secret."

Jaune smiled. "Nah, I already told her while we were running from you."

Grayson let out a sigh of relief. "Oh thank fuck. Well, since you're not exactly making a secret of it, just be careful, there are more than a few students that would get pretty pissy if they found out some nobody got special treatment." Grayson shook his head, remembering that people were petty when it came to the small things. "So, that's one secret out in the open, maybe you'll find the courage in your heart to tell her the big one."

Blake blinked, confused. "Wait, courage in your heart...?" The girl blinked again, before here eyes widened. "Wait, Jaune... are you crushing on me?!"

Jaune choked on his breath, his eyes turning into dinner plates. "What?! No! Of course not!" Jaune cursed himself, wishing that sounded better out loud. "I mean, not that you're not attractive, you are! Like, really attractive! I mean-" Jaune rubbed at his face, getting flustered with each word. "Look, it seems that every girl here is attractive, and that's really messing with my hormones."

Grayson busted out laughing. "Holy shit kid, you have a real bad case of foot-in-mouth syndrome! Ha!"

* * *

As Grayson carried the students back to the rest of the class, the old man couldn't help but feel that the year was going to be a great one. And on top of that, he was going to be tasked with the special program, as soon as Ozpin made the announcement, and picked out the teams. The old man jostled both of the students, "Hey, you're both awake, right?"

The pair answered him with matching groans. "Sensei, why do you did this?"

"Fuck you, that's why." With a smile, the teacher emerged once again from the brush, to find the students staring, fear clearly written on most of their features. "So, as for Arc and Belladonna, they managed to survive for the full ten minutes, meaning they passed assignment for today." Tossing Jaune to the ground, the knight hitting face first, the old man carefully set Blake in a sitting position. "Just take it easy for the rest of class. You two did really well." Grayson smiled, and turned to the rest of the class. "Alright, up next, Tits McGee, and Lie Ren."

Yang glared. "Okay, can you knock that off?! You've called me that since the day we arrived!"

Grayson glanced to the blonde brawler. "Maybe when you actually impress me, I'll call you by your name. But for now, you should get running. I'm giving the rest of the pairs only a minute for a head start, so move."

Yang growled, before Ren laid a hand on her shoulder, and gestured to the forest. The girl shot one last glare to the old man, before she and Ren started to run, disappearing in the greenery.

Jaune pushed himself to the side, now facing upward. "Uh, sir, she has a point."

Grayson shrugged. "Maybe. But for right now, she's letting simple words get to her. That's something that'll get her killed if we can't knock that kind of thinking out of her head. So for now, I want to see what her limits are, and how we can improve on them." The old man breathed in deeply. "Well, that, and she kinda reminds me of myself when I was her age. Fun loving, energetic..." Grayson shook his head. "Emotional, reckless. Honestly, I can't help but wonder how I survived when..." Grayson fell silent, his hands clenching.

"Uh, professor?" The old man glanced to the young reaper. "Can you, maybe call her something else?" The girl looked at her feet, a faint blush on her cheeks.

Grayson rolled his eyes. "Okay, first off, you're all now legally adults, with all the benefits, and the only drawback being a potentially gruesome death at the hands of the Grimm, so I'm sure you can take a few naughty words. Secondly, it's the second thing that came to mind when I saw her. So she is Tits McGee in my mind until she can prove herself to me, and every other teacher." The old man shrugged, and began to jog forward. "Time to get hunting..."

Jaune watched his mentor run into the forest. "Well, I can't say that's completely surprising."

* * *

The rest of the class was a near repeat of the knight's performance, with the old man carrying students back from the forest. He pointed out everyone's flaws, and commended their strengths. As he dismissed the students, he called out to Jaune. "Hey kid. Come here a second, I gotta talk to you about something."

Jaune looked around, with his friends shrugging, and going on their own ways. With a sigh, the knight trudged to his mentor. "Yes, Sensei?"

Grayson chuckled. "As much as I hate to say it, you're gonna need to 'fess up to your friends about those transcripts eventually. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, hell, maybe not in the first month, but it's gonna need to happen eventually."

Jaune frowned, aware that he couldn't keep up the lie forever. "I know, but I can't exactly just open a conversation with 'oh, by the way, I forged my transcripts.'" Jaune shook his head. "They wouldn't be able to trust a word I say after that. They might not even want to be associated with me."

The old man rolled his eyes. "Jaune, if you want the people around you to stay on your side, you need to prove to them, and yourself, that you belong here. That you're _not _a joke, that you can keep people safe. So, put some faith in yourself, and keep pushing yourself every single day."

Jaune said nothing for a few long moments, but he eventually found his voice. "Thanks, Grayson. I kinda needed to hear that."

Grayson chuckled. "Anytime. Now get outta here, you have classes to get to."

* * *

Jaune breathed in deeply, a smile on his face. The day had gone pretty well, and the classes weren't too straining on him after Grayson's little torture session. As he began to change out of his uniform, he heard his scroll buzz. Picking it up, he saw he had a message from his mentor. 'Dorm rooftop in five minutes.' Jaune sighed, and put his shoes on.

As he opened the door to the roof, the first thing he noticed was that Grayson had a rather large bottle in his hand. Then Jaune noticed that his mentor was sitting down, legs dangling off the edge of the building. "Ah, Jaune, there you are. C'mere, take a sit, and let's have a quick drink, to your first day of classes."

Jaune sighed, and sat down next to Grayson. "So, what do you have there?"

The old man grinned. "This, my young disciple, is Atlesian vodka, which I happened to have from some other party. And tonight, I'm going to let you have a few sips. Not enough to get you drunk, just a bit... fuzzy and warm inside."

"Uh, are you sure about this?" Jaune eyed the bottle warily.

Grayson shrugged. "Kid, I've been telling you that death is something hunters have to be prepared for every day. So, shut up, and enjoy this." The old huntsman opened the bottle, and began to drink, taking a few mouthfuls all at once, before pulling the bottle away, teeth grit. "Damn, I keep forgetting how much that actually burns. Well, on the bright side, at least it doesn't taste like fucking hand sanitizer, so there's that."

Jaune blinked at the display, his unease growing. "You know, I think I'm gonna pass on this..."

"Kid, I brought out the bottle, would you at least take a single sip?"

Jaune sighed, and took the bottle offered. As he brought it to his mouth, he could smell the alcohol coming from it, and winced. "Jeez, you couldn't pick something a little more beginner friendly?" The knight shook his head, and took a sip. The young man's eyes widened, he could feel his skin screaming in protest when it was in contact with the liquid. Covering his mouth with a hand so he wouldn't be tempted to spit the drink out, Jaune screwed his eyes shut, and forced the vodka down his throat. Jaune felt himself gag, and let out a whimper. "Sensei... why...?"

Grayson took the bottle with a chuckle. "Because, start off high so everything else doesn't seem that bad. That's what my old teammates said." Grayson took another drink from the bottle. "Don't worry, you'll live." Grayson looked into the night sky for a few seconds before letting out a sigh. "Alright, time to own up to that promise I made earlier..."

Jaune looked at his mentor with a raised brow. "What promise?"

"The one where I would tell you why my weapon is named Hikari. You passed initiation, so it's time to hold up my end of the bargain." Grayson took a deep breath, and began to talk, feeling the alcohol loosen his inhibitions just enough to tell the story. "So, I used to be married. She was the most beautiful woman I'd ever laid eyes on, and she was just so damn good to me, more than I felt I deserved at the time. We started up a family, had a son, that kinda stuff. Well, she was a huntress, so even after she had Ashton, as soon as she was able, she went out on missions. I thought nothing of it, since I was pretty much the same way. We would take turns looking after the little one." The old man could feel his hands shaking. "Well, one day, after our son had turned three, she goes out on a mission, and never comes back. No, the only thing that comes back is her weapon. The one I'm using, to always have one last thing to remember her by." Grayson took a deep breath, seeing the edges of his vision begin to blur, and he knew it wasn't from the alcohol. "Her name was Hikari. So, whenever I take that weapon with me, I have one last piece of her, even if it's been so long..." Grayson shook his head.

Jaune was silent for a few seconds, not knowing what to say to the story he had been told. "Grayson, I..."

The mentor smiled, and shook his head again. "It's fine. It was over twenty years ago. I've..." Grayson took a sip from the bottle, unsure what to say for a few moments. "I've accepted it. It took a while, but it doesn't hurt as much whenever I think about her." Grayson sighed, and pulled himself away from the ledge, and stood up. "Well, this has been very emotional for me, so I'm going to ask that you never bring this up as long as you're in Beacon." The old man walked away, swaying slightly. Opening the door to the stairs, Grayson paused. "Hey kid, make sure you don't slack on your exercise. In fact, every other night, I'm gonna be up here, waiting for you, so we can pick up where we left off."

Jaune's head whipped to his mentor. "What?! But, don't you have classes to plan?!"

Grayson chuckled, and took a drink of the vodka. "Kid, here's a secret that none of the students figure out. I'm bullshitting my way through every single class. Been doing it since day one." Snickering, the old man waved, and left.

Jaune groaned, and buried his head into his hands. Just when he thought he had escaped the hell, he was dragged right back down.


	8. Special Lesson and A Day Out

Jaune couldn't help but smile as the last class of the day ended. The week was finally over, and he could just relax.

At least, that's what he thought, until the speakers blared. "Will all first year students report to the Emerald Forest, geared up and ready." Smacking his head on the nearest wall, the blonde groaned.

From nearby, Nora voiced her confusion. "Huh, I wonder what this is gonna be about. Oh, do you guys think we'll be getting a reward for doing so well?"

Ren sighed. "Nora, we've been in classes for a week. If they were going to do something like that, they would wait until conclusive results were turned in."

Jaune whimpered. "I just wanted to relax. Is that so hard...?" With a deep breath, the knight began to walk. "Come on guys, let's not make them wait."

* * *

Jaune had been wondering how many first years had actually passed the initiation, and now that they were all gathered, he saw just how few were actually there. There was RWBY, JNPR, CRDL, and about six or seven others. He had seen a couple teams group together, like RWBY and JNPR. Ozpin stood in front of the students, mug in hand. "Good evening students. You may be wondering what this is about. No, none of you are in trouble, and no pranks have happened that require me to line you up like criminals. No, this is something different." The headmaster took a sip from his mug, and smiled. "Lately, I've seen teams keep mostly to themselves, or socialize mostly with one or two other teams. I can see it now, in fact." Ozpin shook his head. "Unfortunately, the life of a hunter is not so lenient. No, there will be times where you will be forced away from your team, and work with other hunters, sometimes from other kingdoms. So, I proposed a program, and this will serve as a test of sorts, to see how well it will proceed. If all goes well, we may integrate this program with the higher years. So, please, do your best."

From the headmaster's side, Grayson spoke up. "Alright, listen up. You're all cozy with your little cliques. That's not gonna fly out in the real world. So, starting today, you're all getting an extra six hours on the weekend to come out here, and learn to get along with each other. Your scrolls will be getting the exact hours after this introduction, which is only gonna last about two hours." Grayson clapped his hands together, and grinned. "So, as you've all seen in my class, I pair you up randomly. I'll be doing the same thing here, but on a larger scale. So, you'll be put into groups, with varying sizes, maybe with strangers, maybe with some of your friends, it really depends on what pops into my mind. Anyway, for today, I'll stick with four people to a group." Breathing in deeply, Grayson began to call names, with no pattern that Jaune could see. Eventually, the knight's mentor called on him. "Jaune Arc, Weiss Schnee, and Russel Thrush. You three will be together, so I hope you're all cozy with each other." Jaune sighed, and quickly paired with Weiss, with Russel taking a minute to find. The young man wasn't looking very impressive, and considering the fact that Jaune just had his armor, sword, and gun, that was saying something. Once the old man had called all the students, he couldn't help but grin. "Alright, now that you're all together, we can get to the meat of today's session. A week back, we sent all of you out to initiation, and, in case some of you have shitty memory, you all passed. Today, I'm going to send you in again, but not all at once. No, I have something different. For today, you'll be looking for a very specific item that I've put somewhere in the forest. You won't know what you're looking for until you're out there, and I tell you via your scrolls. Any questions." Silence. "Good. Now, first up, Lie Ren and Ruby Rose. Get in there, and watch each others' backs."

* * *

As the time passed, and groups or pairs went and came back with their items, Jaune wondered what Grayson would pick for his group. "Arc, Schnee, Thrush. Your turn. Knock 'em dead."

As the trio ventured into the woods, Jaune felt his scroll vibrate. Pulling it out, he saw a message from Grayson, containing two simple words. 'Joker Card.'

Jaune sighed. That made this a lot more harder than he thought it would be. There were so many places to put such a small item. Hell, the old man could have buried it somewhere for all he knew. "So, I'm not sure how we're going to find our item, but it looks like we have the Joker card."

Russel groaned. "Great. That's like telling us to look for a needle in a hay stack. Except even worse." The young man sighed. "So, any any ideas where it could possibly be. Some kinda clue?"

Jaune shook his head. "No, it's just two words saying what to get." Breathing in deeply, Jaune began to think about the possible places Grayson would realistically put the card. "Maybe we should check the ruins?"

Weiss seemed to dwell on that thought for a few seconds, before shaking her head. "No, that would be too easy, and too similar to the initiation. He would probably send it somewhere we would kick ourselves for not seeing sooner."

Jaune frowned. That sounded exactly like his mentor. "So, someplace that should be obvious in hindsight." Jaune crossed his arms, and furrowed his brow in thought. Where would Grayson put something so small?

As the knight was thinking, Russel scrunched his nose, and narrowed his eyes. "Wait, do you smell that?"

Jaune and Weiss exchanged a glance, before the two shook their heads. "Uh, not really. Why? What do you smell right now?"

Russel sniffed the air. "It's smells kinda sweet." The punk gestured for the two to move closer to where he was standing. "See if you can't smell it from where I'm standing."

As the knight and the heiress stepped closer, Jaune felt a scent that wasn't present during any of his classes tickle his nose. It was somewhat sugary, and he took a step further, the smell becoming just a hint stronger. "I think I can smell it now. Either that, or I'm getting a placebo effect from what you're saying." Breathing in deeply through his nose, the blonde could swear he smelled the aroma of sugar. "Weiss, do you smell that?"

The heiress frowned, and sniffed daintily, almost stereotypically befitting someone of her status. "Maybe. I'm not sure." Weiss frowned, and began to walk forward. "Well, it's as good of a lead as anything we could come up with. Might as well see where it leads us. Be ready for trouble."

Jaune and Russel nodding, the two falling in step with the girl. Jaune glanced to Russel, the other man giving off a thuggish vibe, but the knight knew better than to judge a book by its cover, seeing as how he had committed a crime just to get into Beacon. "So, uh Russel. What's it like being on a team with Cardin?" Cardin Winchester had already gained a reputation at Beacon for being cruel. The large man being your classic bully figure. He picked on students relentlessly, and Jaune had been a target as well. So far, his books had been slapped out of his hands, something that even Ruby had considered childish when he had told his friends, and his shield had been deployed in one of the doorways, trapping him for all of ten seconds before the knight had retracted the metal into its sheath form. "He's not exactly known for being the friendliest guy around..."

Russel sent a sidelong glance to the Arc. "It's fine. He's a little rough around the edges, but his heart is in the right place..." The way the punk had said that told Jaune that Russel was having a hard time believing his own words.

"Right, and how about all those Faunus he's been practically torturing?" Jaune wasn't sure why Russel was defending Cardin's actions, but that wasn't his business.

"Okay, so he's really rough around the edges. Look, I don't see how this is exactly relevant to what we're doing."

Jaune raised his hands up. "Look, I'm just trying to fill the silence, get to know you a little bit better. It's kinda the point of this whole thing."

Russel sighed. "Whatever."

The trio walked in silence, following the sweet smell, the aroma getting stronger with each step taken. As the three neared the source of the smell, Jaune began to hear rustling of the leaves, and felt no breeze. "Guys, hold up. You hear that?"

The other two stopped, and tilted their heads. Weiss nodded, while Russel frowned. "Alright, what's the play here?"

Jaune deployed his shield, Crocea Mors still sheathed, and pulled his gun from its holster. "I'll take the lead, since I have the most aura out of us all. Russel, right behind me. Weiss, since you need time and space to use your Dust and semblance effectively, you'll be at the back. Ready?"

Russel pulled out a pair of daggers, and twirled them in his hands, a smirk settling onto his face. Weiss drew Myrtenaster with a flourish, her stance set into one of caution. As Jaune walked forward, aiming his magnum in front of him, ready to fire at a moment's notice. As the group moved, the rustling grew louder, until they came across a group of Grimm, mostly Beowolves and Ursa, surrounding a tree, pawing and licking at it.

The trio wasn't sure what to make of the sight before them. The tree seemed to be covered from root to top in a viscous red liquid. Russel squinted at the tree, unsure what to say. "Is that... red sap?"

Weiss and Jaune narrowed their eyes to get a better look at the liquid covering the tree. "I think it is. But, why would they...?" Weiss trailed off, looking up, into the branches and leaves. "You have to be kidding me..."

"What?" Jaune looked up, trying to see what Weiss saw. For a few seconds, Jaune saw only the leaves and bark of the tree. Then, he spotted exactly what the heiress had been talking about. Up in one of the higher branches of the tree, was a teddy bear, with a Joker card taped to the top of its head. "Why...?"

Russel let out a low groan. "Shit. How are we supposed to get up there without fighting all those Grimm?"

Jaune sighed, and took aim. "We can't. Not quickly, at least, and the faster we get this done, the faster we can go to our rooms, relax, and not think about the hell that awaits us the next time we have a session. Get ready." Jaune waited for the others to prepare themselves for the coming fight, and once he could sense that the two had gotten ready, he fired at the closest Beowolf's head.

The Grimm's head exploded in a mist of red and chunks of black, before dissipating into smoke. The other Grimm turned, and charged as soon as they saw the students. Unfortunately for the creatures of darkness, the students had more time to prepare. As Jaune fired until he heard the click of an empty magazine, Weiss had prepared the Dust in her sword, and with elegant sweeps of the blade, sent elemental fury toward the beasts, ice skewering the Grimm, and fire burning them to a crisp.

Once the pack of Grimm had been thinned enough, Jaune holstered his magnum, and unsheathed his sword, Russel rushing forward, daggers at the ready. The two young men seemed relentless to the beasts, with Jaune dispatching the Grimm with cleaving swings. Meanwhile, Russel was much more graceful, leaping to and fro, away from the Grimm's claws and teeth, sending out precise cuts to the Grimms' throats and eyes, aiming for every vital spot he could.

As the young men were charging toward the tree, Weiss had carefully moved around, behind the pack of Grimm, and sent out even more Dust attacks. In no time at all, the trio had decimated the Grimm that had surrounded the tree. As the three relaxed, they looked up to the tree covered in sap, and glanced to each other. Jaune spoke the obvious question on their minds. "So, uh, who's going to actually get the card?" Weiss and Russel stared at Jaune, not saying a word. With a sigh, Jaune had accepted the fate given to him. "Fine, but can I at least get a little bit of help?" The silence coming from the two was all the answer he had needed.

* * *

When Jaune had climbed down from the tree five minutes later, covered in red sap, he could hear the snickers from Weiss and Russel. "Yeah, laugh while you can, I'm sure Professor Hunt is gonna make you do something like this eventually."

The two snickered some more, before Weiss spoke up. "Arc, anyone in your position would be laughed at. Except maybe Ruby, but that's only because Yang would threaten anyone that laughed."

Jaune sighed. "Yeah, but it still stings a bit."

* * *

Jaune collapsed into his bed, tired from the session Grayson had put everyone through. He hadn't changed from his school uniform, and dreaded what would happen in the next two days. Hearing his scroll buzz, Jaune checked his messages, seeing the hours for the next 'bonding' sessions that Grayson had sent out. The knight groaned, and buried his face into the pillow. He wanted nothing more than to go to sleep until he was magically ready to be a huntsman. But he knew that he couldn't do that, and with a sigh, hefted himself out of bed, into the bathroom, and changed into his casual clothes.

As he stepped out, he saw the gazes of his teammates turn to him. He checked his clothes, wondering what they were looking at.

Nora snickered. "That's... Those are some nice threads you have there, Fearless Leader."

Jaune looked down at his clothes, again. "What? What's wrong with what I'm wearing."

Ren slowly shook his head. "Jaune, where did you get that hoodie?"

The blonde frowned. "Is that what this is about? Guys, I had to send in fifty box tops to get this. It's limited edition." The blonde crossed his arms, suddenly defensive about his choice of attire. "There's nothing wrong with a guy wearing Pumpkin Pete."

Pyrrha shook her head, waving her hands. "Oh, no, there isn't. It's just that, well, it's not very... you."

Jaune frowned. "What do you mean? How is it not 'me'?" The knight looked down at the hoodie, unsure what his team was talking about.

Pyrrha tilted her head to the side, considering her words. "Well, that hoodie is something you'd usually see on somebody a bit more..." Pyrrha paused, struggling to get the correct words out. "Well, a bit more timid."

Jaune let out a sigh, and his arms dropped to the side. "Guys, if you think it's something a kid would wear, tell me. I'm not made of glass, I can take it."

Nora looked to the others, before sighing. "Alright, I'll be the bearer of bad news. Jaune, that hoodie kinda makes you look childish."

"Okay. Well, Nora, I don't like pancakes as much as you, but do you see me telling you that eating that many isn't exactly healthy?"

Nora let out a snort. "But Jaune, pancakes are the one true way to happiness. That hoodie is the way to staying single."

Jaune had to bite his lip to keep from bursting out laughing. That was actually kinda funny. "Nora, it's a hoodie with a fictional character on it, there are plenty of people that do the same thing."

Nora opened her mouth to refute Jaune's statement, but nothing came out. She let out a short hum, before crossing her arms. "Alright, you get a pass, but only for that hoodie, anything else like that, and it's open season on you."

Jaune chuckled. "Deal. So, I was thinking about heading out to Vale to actually get something to eat, maybe get a souvenir. Anybody wanna come with me?"

Pyrrha gave a sweet smile, and nodded. "That sounds like a lovely idea, Jaune."

"Thanks. Nora, Ren?" The other half of the team looked to each other, before Ren sighed, and Nora grinned.

"Sorry, Jaune. Nora and I have a workout session in half an hour, and I don't want to risk upsetting Nora by missing it."

Jaune and Pyrrha glanced to Nora, and then nodded in understanding. "Alright, Pyrrha, I guess it's just me and you. Oh!" Jaune took out his scroll, and began to message Ruby. "I'm gonna invite Ruby and her team. The more the merrier, right?"

"Of course. After all, what are friends for?" Pyrrha said, her smile widening.

Jaune nodded, focusing on the screen in front of him. In no time at all, there was a knock on the door, and as Ren opened it. Standing just outside of the room, were Ruby and Weiss. Ruby walked straight in without even pausing. "So, Jaune, sorry about Blake and Yang, but they're still catching up on their assignments from Oobleck. It's really lucky that Weiss keeps telling me to get papers done as soon as I can, or I might be with the others right now."

Weiss let out a sigh. "I told them to get on top of it. But did they listen to me? Of course not."

Ruby place on hand on Weiss's shoulder. "Don't worry, I'm sure they're realizing the error of their ways. After all, less homework on the weekend is always a good thing." Ruby turned to Jaune, her face bright. "So! Where're we going?"

Jaune shrugged. "I'm not exactly sure, I was thinking getting some food from this one place that's really good. Maybe we'll wander around a bit, see where the wind takes us."

Ruby tilted her head. "Oh? You already have a place in mind?"

The blonde nodded, a smile on his face. "Yeah, it's a place that I've actually been craving since I got to Beacon. I mean, the food here is great, I'm not saying it isn't, but there's something about the place that I just really like."

Weiss raised a brow. "So you're from Vale?"

Jaune shook his head. "Not really, I just came to the city a while before the year actually started. Wanted to see what the city had to offer."

Weiss put her hand to her chin, closely inspecting the blonde. "Very well. Let's get going." Witt that, the heiress left, not even bothering to check if the others were following her.

Jaune blinked, unsure what had just happened, before Ruby began to pull him and Pyrrha after Weiss.

* * *

The bullhead ride to Vale had been excruciating, just like all the other times he had flown. But as the aircraft finally touched ground, Jaune had kept his stomach from expelling its contents. Leaning against a trash can, Jaune took in deep breaths, thankful that the trash was mostly empty. He felt a pair of hands rubbing at his back, the contact acting more as emotional support than any physical aid.

Once he had gotten over the little episode, Jaune pushed himself away from the trash can. Seeing Ruby and Pyrrha standing there with somewhat worried looks. Jaune waved it off, and began to walk. "I'm getting better, trust me. It was a lot worse last week." Jaune couldn't help but chuckle at the thought. He wasn't sure if he was getting used to the motion sickness with how much travelling on the bullheads he had taken in the past month, which was so much more than his entire life before that point, or if it was actually going away for some reason. With a shrug, Jaune looked around, and began to plot the best route to Bisman's place.

The walk was full of joy, Jaune easily talking and laughing with his friends, a far cry from the meek, awkward boy he had once been. "So, yeah, seven sisters. Mom and Dad always say I'm their favorite son." Jaune smiled at the humor his parents had.

Ruby shook her head in amazement. "Man, Yang was torture all by herself, I can't imagine having six _more _sisters."

"Yeah, well, it's not all bad." Jaune looked up, and held up a hand, stopping the group. "Here it is. It doesn't look like much, but it has heart."

The girls looked at the building in front of them, a mix of emotions on their faces, Pyrrha had an optimistic smile, as Ruby scrunched her brow, looking more confused than anything, while Weiss looked in blatant distrust at the establishment in front of her. "Uh, Jaune, are you _sure _this is the place?" Ruby voiced her concern. "It looks kinda..."

Jaune nodded, already knowing what the young reaper was talking about. "Yeah, it looks more rundown than it actually is, but trust me when I say that it has some of the best food I've ever eaten."

The girls looked to Jaune, before relenting, and stepped inside. As Jaune walked in, he couldn't help but chuckle as the sheer coincidence of finding Grayson in the place. His reminiscence was cut short when a familiar voice spoke up. "Oi! Are you gonna order, or just stand there?" Bisman had his arms crossed, with a smirk that only Jaune could catch. "Take a seat anywhere, it's not like I have the place packed." Indeed, there were hardly any customers, as usual.

The group took their seats at the counter, with Jaune settling in quickly. The trio of girls looked around, and sniffed at the air, their eyes wide in surprise. "Jaune, it smells heavenly in here." Pyrrha was the first to compliment the atmosphere.

Ruby nodded. "Yeah, it smells like comfort food that dad tried to make a couple of times, except it's not burning."

The group chuckled. Then they looked at the menu in their hands, and looked to be spoiled for choice. Jaune smiled, and shook his head. "Hey, Bisman, mind just giving them the usual?"

Bisman chuckled. "Honestly, it feels like that's all I'm making these days..."

* * *

A good while later, the group was eating happily. Pyrrha and Weiss had the decency to be civil with their food, eating smaller portions, while Ruby and Jaune had no care, and were devouring the food in front of them.

Weiss shook her head. "Honestly, you two. Can't you at least act a little more civilized? We're in public, and you two need to set an example, being team leaders and all."

Ruby swallowed the mouthful of food she was chewing on, and answered quickly. "But Weiss. It's _so good_."

Jaune shook his head. "Weiss, you have less food on you're place then anyone else here. Just because you're eating a lot cleaner, doesn't mean you're eating any slower than us."

Weiss's face flushed, and she turned her head with a huff, crossing her arms. "Well, of course I'm eating. It would be rude not to."

The others snickered and giggled at the heiress. Ruby spoke up, hoping to appease the usually cold girl. "Weiss. It's okay, we won't tell anyone if you pig out for a little bit."

Weiss glared, before returning to her meal. Before she could retort, the door to the food joint opened , and Jaune felt a chill go up his spine. "Hey Bisman. Hit me with the usual. Hm?" There, was Grayson, the old teacher smiling at the students before him. "Well, what do we have here? A dashing young man on an outing with three young maidens? I wonder..."

Jaune groaned, and slumped his head onto the counter, pushing his plate away. "Sensei, no..."

The old man grinned. "Aw, fine, since you asked so politely." Settling into the seat next to Jaune, the old hunter placed his order, another 'usual'. "So, how are you four? I hope you're all caught up with your assignments and all that good school stuff."

Weiss nodded. "Of course, professor. It would reflect rather poorly if we didn't complete our work as soon as we could."

The old man rolled his eyes. "Kids, just call me Grayson whenever we're not at Beacon. I can't stand the formality." As his plate was brought out, the hunter began to eat. "Besides, titles have the affect of alienating people, so I try to avoid that as much as possible. Don't want people to be too afraid to speak to the Professor, or..." Grayson trailed off, before shaking his head. "Never mind. Point is; make sure people don't see you as an icon. It ruins almost everything."

The students, with the exception of Pyrrha, were rather confused by the statement. "Uh, what do you mean?" Ruby had titled her head, and raised a brow.

Grayson sighed. "They stop seeing you as a person with feelings and emotions, and start looking at you like this thing that they use for their enjoyment. It doesn't matter what you're called, if it's the 'invincible girl' over here, or an old name that almost nobody remembers, like the Beast."

The title sent a shiver up the knight's spine. Thankfully, Jaune didn't have to ask, as Weiss had done so before he could even open his mouth. "Grayson, who exactly is the Beast?"

The old man let out a tired sigh. "Well, the full title was 'The Beast of the Hunt', but it was eventually shortened to just 'Beast'. He was a hunter that had lost a whole lot, eventually breaking down and just started wandering around, killing every Grimm he saw. It got to the point where he was fighting more like an animal than a person, instinct winning over the rational part of his mind. But that's a story for another time. So!" The old man turned, a bright smile on his face. "What are you kids doing after this? Taking in the sights? Strategizing for the tournament?"

Jaune rolled his eyes. "Grayson, it's too early for that? We need to see the competition before we come up with any plans."

The hunter chuckled. "True. Well, you kids eat up and get out of here. I'll make sure not to ruin your little dates."

The students faces turned red, and after quickly finishing and paying for their meals, and wishing the old man a good day, and leaving. Jaune couldn't help but wonder why his mentor was so pleased with himself whenever he embarrassed anyone. Shaking his head, Jaune looked to his friends, who still looked a bit red in the face. "Okay, so, that was nice. I guess."

Weiss shook her head. "I can't possibly see what he was talking about. Honestly, this whole thing being one big date... How unsightly."

Ruby raised a finger. "Actually he said dates. As in, more than one. But, I'm not sure who would be dating who then..."

The question was raised, and there was no answers. So, in lieu of finding an answer, the group decided to simply move on, and enjoy the rest their time in the city.


	9. Bullies and Confessions

Jaune breathed heavily as he looked up, seeing Cardin smirking down at him. The larger man didn't seem to be too concerned with the blonde. As Jaune raised his shield, he couldn't help but be frustrated at himself. Cardin was treating him like a joke, and while he could still feel his aura, he wasn't sure he could beat the larger man with how much he had left. The brunette stepped forward chuckling. "Come on, Jauney Boy, just stop wasting everyone's time, and give up."

Jaune grit his teeth, and felt anger bubble up in his chest. This asshole, this waste of a person, was telling him to just give up?! "Shut up!" Jaune yelled out, and charged, the rage fueling his sore body. As he neared Cardin, he raised his shield, deflecting the mace Cardin brought down, and swung with all of his might, a stronger glow surrounding his sword. The blade connected, and as it dragged along the larger man's armor, there was a distinct shine as he could see the aura strain under the strike.

Before Jaune could step back, Cardin planted his feet, and gripped the mace with both hands, wound up and swung right into Jaune's stomach. The amount of force behind the swing dwarfed every attack Cardin had hit Jaune with before that moment. The blonde's eyes widened, and before he could do anything, he was thrown away, right off the stage they had been fighting on, and nearly into the students watching the match. Cardin smiled, and gloated. "See? Nothing new."

Jaune growled, and used Crocea Mors to get to his feet. Glynda stepped forward, and declared. "This match is over. As you can see, although Mister Arc's and Mister Winchester's aura levels are roughly the same-"

"What?!" Cardin shouted out, and looked up to the giant screen displaying his aura. "When?! How?!"

With a sigh, Glynda pushed her glasses up. "Mister Winchester, Jaune has been whittling your aura down since the beginning of the fight. That last strike even managed to take out around ten percent of your aura. Rather impressive, Mister Arc." Jaune smiled, and rubbed at the back of his head, his sword sheathed, and shield collapsed and hanging off his side. "As I was saying before Mister Winchester rudely interrupted; while their auras are at the same level, Mister Arc was knocked out of the ring, and in a tournament style duel, this would disqualify Jaune from the match." Glynda gave Jaune a stern look, and shook her head. "While your technique is adequate, it seems that your physical abilities are still lacking, your reaction speed being a more notable flaw."

"Thank you, Miss Goodwitch."

"Of course." Glynda turned her attention to the rest of the class. "Remember, the Vytal Festival is only a few months away. It won't be long before students from the other kingdoms start arriving in Vale, so keep practicing!" Goodwitch smiled, looking at her students proudly. "Any students looking to compete in the combat tournament will be representing all of Vale." As she finished the reminder, the bell rang. "Dismissed!"

Pyrrha was at Jaune's side, hovering at the young man's side. "Jaune, do you need any help walking? That was quite the hit you took..."

Jaune sighed. Pyrrha was a good friend, but she needed to stop coddling him like an older sister. He had come to Beacon to get away from that. "Pyrrha, I'm fine, I just took a heavy hit. Besides, it's nothing compared to what Sensei put me through. He..." Jaune shuddered. "Yeah, better to not talk about that."

Pyrrha's eyes narrowed. "Jaune, you've explained that Professor Hunt was Sensei when we went out to the city a few weeks ago, but I don't think you've ever actually explained what the training was."

Jaune winced, not wanting to think about it more than he had to. "Well, that's because he put me through hell. Whenever I didn't perform well enough, he would take me to Beacon so we could spar, and the thing about Sensei is that he doesn't really pull his punches with me like he does with the other students. He even managed to make a hole in the arena at one point. He made sure to give me some time off, sent me to the infirmary, so I know he cares, but it usually felt like he was pushing me to my absolute limit, sometimes even right past it." Jaune took a deep breath, and smiled. "But, I really can't thank him enough for what he did. The extra training really paid off."

Pyrrha nodded along to Jaune's rant. "Right. And, maybe we could, maybe some days after classes are over, have some _extra _training sessions?"

Jaune blinked. Well, he would have to be stupid _not _to accept even more training. He just to be sure to rest every now and then, hopefully he wouldn't burn out. "Uh, yeah, that sounds great."

Pyrrha beamed, her eyes bright. "Excellent!"

* * *

Jaune poked at the food on his plate, before actually taking bites of the food that was, admittedly, really good. He would be a little more hungry if Cardin wasn't being such a absolute piece of garbage not even three table spaces away. He was picking on a girl, a Faunus, like usual. He was pulling at the rabbit ears perched atop her head. The knight's stomach felt cold, and anger bubbled up inside. Taking a deep breath, Jaune turned his focus to his food. Maybe if he ate fast enough, he wouldn't feel the guilt for not even lifting a finger to help. Some huntsman he was turning out to be. He couldn't even help a fellow student from a bully.

"Jaune!" The outburst from Pyrrha startled the blonde up from his thoughts. He looked around quickly, and saw that everyone at the table was looking at him, varying looks of concern on their faces. "Jaune, did you hear any of what I said?"

"Uh, yeah, you were..." Jaune trailed off, completely unsure what they were talking about. "Saying something about our weapons...?"

Ruby sighed. "No, Jaune. We were asking if you were okay. And from that, it doesn't look like you are..." The young reaper's face was filled with concern, the sight pulling at Jaune's heart.

Thankfully, he had built a resistance from the same look thanks to his younger sisters' antics. "Ruby, everything's okay. Look!" Jaune grinned with as much energy he could, giving a thumbs up. It fell soon after, hearing Cardin's obnoxious laughter. The grin turned into a scowl, a soft growl coming from the blonde. "That little..."

Pyrrha let out a sigh. "Jaune, if you need help, you can just ask."

Nora let out a gasp, and stood, flexing her arms. "Let's break his legs." The grin on the girl's face told that there was something dark just beneath the surface.

Jaune shook his head. "Guys, I'm fine. I just-"

"That hurts!" The Faunus girl yelped out, as Cardin had given the appendage a particularly rough tug.

Jaune clenched his fist, rage beginning to cloud his thinking. Then again, he felt as level headed as ever. After all, how easy would it be to just walk up to Cardin, and deck the prick right in the face? It would be too easy, seeing as how all of the bully's attention was on the suffering he was causing to the girl. Gritting his teeth, Jaune stood up, and made to move, before Pyrrha pulled at his arm. "Jaune. He's not worth it."

That caused the fire in his chest to swell. "'Not worth it'? Pyrrha, look at him! Look at what's he's doing." The knight breathed in deeply, trying to no avail to calm his mind. "Pyrrha, since when has helping someone ever not been worth it?" With the words said, Jaune wrenched his arm out of his partner's grip, and began to walk with a purpose. "Hey, Cardin!" Jaune called out, once he had closed the gap.

Cardin looked up from the girl he had been harassing, and calmly let go of the girl's ear. "Jauney. What do you want?" The bully looked bored, as if practically torturing people was something to do to pass the time.

Jaune's hands curled into tight fists. "I've had enough of your shit. You think you can just push people around, laugh at them, and I'm sick of you getting away with it all!"

Cardin tilted his head back, and cackled out laughter. "Oh, really? And what are you going to do? Go tell the teachers on me?"

Jaune's face contorted in rage, before he grinned. "No. I'm gonna do this." Jaune picked up a tray of food from next to him, and hurled it right into Cardin's face, the tray bouncing off harmlessly. Instead, the food that was left on the tray had stuck to the bully's face. The look on the larger man was priceless to the blonde.

Cardin blinked, before growling, getting up from his seat, and marched toward the blonde. "You're _dead_!" Jaune's grin stayed right on his face, even as he ducked out of the bully's larger slower hands trying to grab him. "Just stay still!"

Jaune could hardly believe how easy it was to actually set the bully off. All he had done to him was throw some food at his face, and now the larger man was trying to actually beat him down. "You know Cardin, you should probably see someone about this anger. It can't be good for you." Jaune wasn't exactly sure where this confidence was really coming from. The only people he actually talked with were Teams RWBY and JNPR, along with a couple of the teachers, like Gray- Oh.

Well, that certainly explained some things. The old man was definitely a bad influence on the young man. Or maybe it was a good influence? After all, for the first time in his life, he was standing up to a bully, and he _wasn't _getting his face kicked in. "Shut up!" Cardin roared out, his eyes ablaze with fury. "Just wait until I get my hands on you!"

Jaune snickered. "Nah, I think this is working pretty well." It helped that the blonde could move a little easier, and Cardin's swings were even more pronounced then when they had sparred. "In fact, I think I'll keep doing this for a little longer."

Or at least, just long enough for Cardin to roar out, lunging, but not going anywhere. A faint purple glow shone around Cardin's body, and from the way his face turned from one of complete rage, to utter terror, the bully knew exactly what was happening. From somewhere behind the floating student, Glynda Goodwitch's voice spoke up. "Mister Winchester, just what do you think you're doing?"

Cardin was silent, before spitting out, "He attacked me! I was just defending myself!"

Jaune let out a snort that he felt his mentor would be proud of. "Cardin, I tossed some food at you. That's hardly anything compared to what hunters get put through. Especially the professional ones."

Cardin growled out, before Glynda spoke up again. "Well, considering that Mister Arc has yet to have any complaints about himself brought to the staff, while you have been named on numerous occasions concerning bullying, I find myself believing Jaune's statement far more than your own." The woman let out a sigh, stepped around Cardin's floating body, and locked her gaze onto Jaune. "Now, Mister Arc, since this seems to be your first offense concerning your behavior, I'll be letting you off with a warning. Do not let this become a common occurrence, otherwise, you will be joining Cardin here for detention with Professor Hunt."

Jaune nodded, gulping quietly. "I understand Miss Goodwitch. It won't happen again."

"See to it that it doesn't. For now, enjoy the rest of your lunch." Glynda turned around, and began walking, Cardin trailing along behind her, floating. "And as for _you_, Cardin Winchester..." Glynda's rant faded into silence as she walked, the sound around the cafeteria resuming its noise.

Jaune let out a sigh, and glanced to the remaining members of Cardin's team, the majority glaring at him. Jaune frowned, and growled out, "What are you looking at?" The three all broke eye contact, and looked down to their meals, quietly eating. Jaune shook his head, and turned around, only to find the Faunus girl standing there, twiddling her hands together. "Shit..." Jaune muttered under his breath, and quickly walked up to the girl. "Hey, are you okay?"

The girl nodded, and quietly murmured. "Thank you..." She was looking at the ground, shuffling slightly in place.

"Hey, it's no big deal. Honestly, I should have done something sooner..." Jaune felt a bit angry at himself for taking so long to stand up to the bully.

The girl looked up, smiled, and shook her head. "You did something. You stood up for me, and that's more than I can say for a lot of the people here."

Jaune scratched the back of his head, sheepish. "Yeah, well, I just did what was right..."

The girl giggled. "Well, here's a reward for doing the right thing, then." The girl stepped forward, and wrapped her arms around the blonde, hugging tightly. She stayed there for a moment, Jaune unsure whether to hug back or not, before she pulled back, smiling brightly. "I'm Velvet, by the way. Velvet Scarlatina."

Jaune chuckled awkwardly. "Jaune. Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls of the tongue. Ladies love it." Well, Jaune had lasted a good while before the pick-up line his dad had given him finally tumbled out.

However, as Jaune was berating himself for letting the lame line come out, Velvet giggle again. "Really? Well, I guess it does have a nice ring to it."

The knight could hardly believe his ears. The girl had responded positively to his slip up. "Thanks. Well, I should get back to my team. Don't want them worrying over me any more than they need to. I'll see you later."

The girl nodded. "Sounds good. See ya, Jaune."

The two parted ways, and as Jaune settled back into his seat, he could already feel the stares from his friends. "So, uh, yeah. No big deal."

Pyrrha shook her head. "Jaune, that was reckless."

Nora let out a snort. "It was also completely _awesome!_ Jaune, that was amazing, you didn't even hit him, you were just dodging all over the place! And then Miss Goodwitch came in, and she just stopped him right in the air!" Nora laughed. "Oh, I am _so _glad you're my leader!"

Ren sighed. "Nora, I don't think we should encourage any fighting between students that isn't supervised by the staff."

Nora pouted. "I guess."

Jaune shook his head. "Guys. Hunters help people, so that's what I did." The blonde wasn't sure why everybody was blowing it out proportion. "Besides, I got a slap on the wrist compared to what Cardin is going to go through. He has detention with Grayson." The entire table shivered, not wanting to know what the old man would do to kids that had crossed the line.

Blake spoke up, surprising the knight. "Well, for what it's worth, Jaune, I think you did a good thing. The world would be a lot better if there were more people like you, willing to do some real good."

Jaune blinked, unsure what to say, aside from the obvious. "Uh, thanks..."

* * *

The rest of lunch had passed without further incident, the teams going about their classes. History was a more peaceful class without Cardin's antics distracting anyone. As Oobleck sped around the class at speeds that normally wouldn't be possible without a semblance, Jaune was doing his best to take whatever notes he could, which was a challenge even for the likes of Weiss and Ruby. Weiss was an excellent note taker, and only jotted down the bare essentials of whatever the Doctor was saying, while Ruby was using her semblance to keep up with Oobleck's speech. The Faunus Wars, or the Faunus Rights Revolution, was a topic that Jaune had no feelings about personally, since he really didn't know any Faunus himself. Well, there was Velvet, but he had only met her about an hour ago, so it really didn't count just yet. Shaking his head, Jaune once again cursed his past self for being so selfish.

As he set his pencil down to flex the cramps out of his hand, Jaune looked to the Doctor, amazed at the man's speed, both in actually moving his body, and speaking. Oobleck stopped for a few moments, and asked a question to the class. "Now, are there any Faunus here that have been discriminated just because of your heritage?" Jaune glanced around, and saw Velvet slowly raise her hand. Oobleck shook his head in what the blonde could only assume to be disappointment. "Truly dreadful and despicable. It is this exact kind of ignorance that breeds hate and violence. I mean, just look at what happened to the White Fang!" Jaune blinked. He was hearing a lot about that group lately. The blonde didn't get a chance to continue his thoughts, as the Doctor kept speaking. "Now! Can anyone here tell me what many scholars believe to be the turning point in the third year of the war?" Jaune sunk into his seat, and thankfully his attempt at becoming one with the cushion worked in his favor. "Yes, Miss Schnee?"

"The battle of Fort Castle!" Jaune could practically _hear _the smirk on the heiress's lips.

"Precisely! Now, can anyone tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune and his forces?" Jaune narrowed his eyes. He was pretty sure his partner had covered this exact topic the day before, mostly because she felt that the team could use a boost to their academic standing, which Jaune had learned was Pyrrha's way of saying that she wanted to get it done early so they would be prepared for this exact situation. "Mister Arc! You've been rather quiet this class, but maybe you have the answer."

Jaune swallowed, feeling a hint of doubt in the back of his mind. He shoved the thought away, and pressed forward. "Night vision. Faunus have really good vision in the dark."

Oobleck nodded. "Exactly right! Miss Belladonna, care to explain how the General found out that little fact?"

Blake nodded. "General Lagune was inexperienced, and tried to ambush the Faunus in their sleep, which backfired horribly, leading to his army's defeat, and his own capture."

Jaune let out a breath of relief. He was suddenly much more thankful for Pyrrha's diligence concerning homework and the like. As the bell rang, signalling the end of class, Jaune rushed out the door as quickly as he could. The rest of his team was at his side. Nora let out a whoop. "Nice job, Fearless Leader! Man, if Oobleck had asked me that question, I probably would have said something way off base, like telescopes or something."

Ren chuckled. "Nora, that's been your go-to answer for almost everything. Even when it has nothing to do with history."

Nora shrugged. "Hey, I hit people and Grimm with my hammer. I don't really see why we need to learn this stuff."

Jaune shook his head. "Nora, if you don't learn from the mistakes of the past, then you're just going to repeat them. Something Sensei told me a few times. Mostly when I got my ass handed to me..." Jaune smiled, even as the thought of Grayson's training made the knight's muscles tense up. "Well, that was the last class for the day, anyone have plans?" When his team shook their heads, Jaune grinned. "Great! Maybe we could head out to Vale, maybe invite Team RWBY."

Ren nodded, smiling. "Sounds good. It's been a bit since we could hang out and talk. So, where should we go?"

Jaune thought about it for a few seconds. "Hm, maybe we can go to a cafe, or maybe a coffee shop. It's been a while since I've had any good coffee..."

Pyrrha blinked, and tilted her head. "I didn't know you drank coffee."

Jaune smiled, and rubbing his arm self-consciously. "Yeah, it hasn't really come up, mostly because I've been too tired to do anything after classes. Heh..." Jaune wasn't sure how to tell his team that he had acquired the taste because his mentor had pushed him to his limits, the caffeine helping him to stay awake, lest he faint in the middle of a sparring match. "Long story short, I know this place out in the city that serves some of the best coffee I've had."

"Sounds lovely."

* * *

An hour later, and the two teams were seated in a small coffee shop, with Nora and Ruby getting sweet hot chocolate instead of actual coffee because everyone had a feeling that if either of the two ingested actual caffeine, the damage would be catastrophic. As the teams talked, Jaune felt a nagging thought at the back of his mind. He thought back to the end of his first class with Grayson, and how his mentor had told him that sooner or later his friends would need to know about his transcripts. The thought of telling them filled his stomach with knots, and his muscles tensed. Looking at his friends, thoughts of the worst case scenario filled his mind, of everyone leaving him, wanting nothing to do with him.

"Hey, Jaune, are you okay? You look kinda out of it. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were dealing with some heavy stuff." Jaune snapped his attention to Ruby, the first friend he made at Beacon. Thoughts of her reaction began to gnaw at his mind. Would she care, and hate him, or would she forgive him, and stick with him through thick and thin? Considering what he knew of the girl, he was pretty sure he knew what her response would be.

Jaune smiled, and nodded. "Yeah, just needing to think about something." Jaune took a sip from his coffee, the cream and sugar tasting like heaven on his tongue. Looking into his drink, the knight decided to bite the bullet, and just get it out in the open. "Actually, I have something I need to tell you. Everyone, really..." As soon as the words left his lips, the young reaper shushed everyone, and now Jaune had the attention of his friends. Steeling his nerves, and drinking his coffee to get time to think about his words, Jaune spoke. "Guys, when I say that I'm incredibly lucky to have friends like you all, I mean it from the bottom of my heart. I know it's only been some weeks, but it feels like it's been forever, y'know? I really don't think I could as for better friends than all of you. So, it really is hard to say this, because it's going to change a lot of things, maybe how you see me. But believe me, however you react, I'll deal with it."

Before Jaune could go any further, Yang spoke up. "Jaune, please don't say that you've fallen for all of us, and this is just one big love confession."

Jaune chuckled, even as Blake nearly choked on her drink. "Oh, Yang, if only it were something as simple as that..." Jaune tightened his grip on the cup in his hands, and took a deep breath. "No, it's not something so innocent. Guys... I forged my transcripts to Beacon." As the words left his mouth, Jaune could feel tears well up in his eyes, and looked down to his drink, not wanting to see the looks on his friends faces. The judgment. The contempt.

"Jaune..." The knight stiffened at the sound of his name, not daring to look up. "Jaune, look at us." The blonde man slowly lifted his head, looking at his friends. Weiss glared at he young man, an inferno in her normally cold glare.


	10. Reactions

Jaune bit his cheek to keep himself from uttering any words that would dig his hole even deeper. Weiss didn't say anything, nobody did. It was complete silence between the entire group. It stretched for so long that Jaune felt the world bearing down on him. The young man grit his teeth, waiting for someone, anyone, to say _something._ Finally, the heiress broke the silence. "Jaune. I can't believe that you have the courage to tell us this. If I were in your shoes, I'd be so ashamed of myself that I would do everything in my power to make sure that nobody ever found out about this." Weiss shook her head.

Jaune swallowed down some more of his coffee with the most difficulty that he had ever had. "Guys... I..."

The heiress snapped at the knight. "No! You said your piece, and now we're going to say ours. Jaune, forging transcripts is a serious crime. I'm not sure what might happen to you if anyone that doesn't have your best interests at heart finds out about this." Jaune blinked as his brains processed the words that Weiss had spoken. The heiress rolled her eyes. "Jaune, while I can't say that we're the best of friends or anything of the like, from what I've seen, your abilities have more than spoken for themselves. After all, you're winning more than losing whenever you spar in combat class. So, while I don't agree with how you did it, I will say that you belong here just like the rest of us. Does anyone else have anything to say?" Weiss looked to the group.

Ruby sipped at her cocoa, looking to the side. "Jaune, you're my best friend. Nothing is going to change that, not even this. I mean, forging papers was wrong, I'm not saying that's okay or anything, but I'm not going to hate you for it."

Yang shrugged. "I mean, sure you faked your way into Beacon. That's pretty bad, and if you were a glory chaser that didn't care for us, I'd be pretty pissed, but I know you care about your friends. Like how you helped Rubes with her confidence about being leader. I mean, if you can be confident, I don't see why she can't."

Ruby smacked the arm that wasn't holding Yang's coffee. "Yang!"

The brawler chuckled. "I'm just giving him a hard time. Jeez, can't I crack a couple jokes to try and lighten the mood?"

Blake rolled her eyes. "Jaune, from what I've seen, you're trying your best to help the people around you. That's more than what I can say for some people I used to know." The girl shook her head, and frowned. "I feel like I really don't have any right to judge you for this, so I won't."

The knight blinked, taken back a bit by Blake's stance on the issue. He was pretty sure that everyone was going to hate him, but so far everyone was only criticizing the fact that he faked his transcripts. Then again, they didn't know he only had a month of training, so they likely thought he had spent years getting to where he was. "Thanks." Jaune turned from RWBY to his own team. "Well?"

Ren let out a hum, taking a sip of his coffee. "Well, aside from initiation, you've shown that you're very intelligent when it comes to strategy and planning, and so far you've moved up the rankings when in comes to pure combat abilities. So, I would say that while you went about getting here the wrong way, but you've come this far, and that definitely counts enough for me."

Nora nodded. "Yeah, I mean, who here _hasn't _done something illegal at least once in their lives' in this group?" Ruby, Pyrrha, and Weiss raised their hands. "See, a majority of the people here have done something. So what if what you did is a little bigger than shoplifting?"

Pyrrha sighed. "Nora, please don't encourage illegal activities." Yeah, Jaune got enough of that from his mentor. "Jaune, from what I've seen, you've trained to get here, and the only thing holding you back is yourself. And I don't mean that as in you're not in the right mindset. I mean that you're body is keeping you from achieving what you're mind is set on."

Jaune sighed. "Yeah, I wasn't exactly the strongest, or the fastest, or anything like that when I was growing up. I usually tried as hard as I could, and most of the time it still wasn't enough." Shaking his head, the knight couldn't help but frown at the memories of his childhood. "But, I passed initiation, and I'm getting better. It really helps that I have all of your support."

Ruby smiled. "And we'll all help each other, no matter what."

Jaune chuckled. "Yeah, no matter what." Jaune reached out, and ruffled Ruby's hair, the reaction being the same whenever he did so with his younger sisters, the young reaper flailing at his arm, pouting and blushing. Sometimes the knight couldn't help but think how lucky he was to have all of his great friends in his life.

* * *

As much as everyone had said that they would stick by each other's sides, the knight couldn't help but feel a subtle change between the group. Whenever the two teams trained together, Jaune couldn't help but notice that whenever he had sparred with his friends, the fights were a little less intense, as if they were pulling their punches just a bit, maybe literally in Yang's case.

Jaune brought up his shield to block Ruby's sniper rounds, the kick behind the bullets making his arms ache a bit. Jaune glanced to the pistol holstered at his side. He really needed another sheathe to hold his sword when he wanted to pull the gun out, because only having Crocea Mors sheathe, which was his shield, wasn't exactly the quickest way to put his sword aside. Growling softly, Jaune rushed forward, his shield deflecting the shots. The knight briefly wondered why Ruby wasn't aiming for his legs, before a sudden pain hit his leg. It felt like someone had Yang a sledgehammer, and swung it straight at his knee, causing his leg to fly out from under him, and he fell.

Quickly getting to his feet, the knight kept his shield up, peering over it. Ruby was smirking, her weapon planted into the ground. "What's wrong, Jaune? Tripped over your own feet?"

Jaune rolled his eyes at the trash talk. "Nah, just got tired of running after you. I mean, why try to chase you when I can just stand here until you come to me?" The grin the knight wore was one for show, the blonde unsure how long it would take for Ruby to get sick of shooting his shield before she rushed in.

Fortunately for the young man, the answer was given to him in about ten seconds, the young reaper appearing to have run out of ammo, and charging forward with her semblance, closing the distance between the two leaders in seconds. The knight brought up his shield, and prepared his sword to strike the moment he felt contact.

As Ruby's scythe struck his shield, Jaune pushed back, the girl apparently not expecting so, and the scythe stopping dead in its track. Jaune lunged forward, bringing his sword down onto the young reaper. Ruby grimaced as the blade scraped against her aura, and quickly dashed away. Smirking, Jaune stepped forward, slowly marching toward his friend. "What's wrong? Scared of little old me?"

Ruby snorted, and rushed in again, taking the bait the knight had obviously laid out. The blonde could barely follow the young reaper's movement, the speed he saw making his mentor seem like a turtle after a nap. Thankfully, Ruby was a lot more predictable than the old huntsman, the girl jumping forward, her scythe raised high. Jaune shook his head, then quickly stepped to the side, his fellow leader yelping as she blew right past him.

The girl had recovered by turning midair and slamming Crescent Rose into the ground, quickly coming to a stop due to the weapon's weight being so much more than her own. The young reaper scowled, before rushing in again. This time, as Ruby neared, Jaune stabbed his sword into the ground, and readied himself. Once Ruby was close enough, Jaune lunged forward, into the range the girl's scythe wouldn't be able to hit him, and tackled the reaper to the ground.

Due to the girl having almost no hand-to-hand combat experience, as well as being a toothpick in comparison to Jaune, along with nearly every student at Beacon, Ruby had no real way of fighting the blonde off of her. Ruby struggled for a bit, before sighing, and muttering. "You win..."

Jaune chuckled as he lifted his weight off of his friend. "Come on, losing is still a part of learning. Sure, it stings whenever it happens, but it helps in the long run. I mean, we can't do everything perfect on the first try every time, because what would the point be of schools?"

Ruby crossed her arms and pouted. "Sometimes I still feel like Ozpin made a mistake in letting me in early."

Jaune shook his head. "Ruby, I've had weeks to watch and learn how you fight. Once I actually analyze your style, I can come up with a strategy pretty quickly. You usually lead in with a shots, then charge in. Whenever you charge, you have a habit of jumping and hitting, and there's a window, which is really small because your semblance is crazy. I happened to get lucky enough to take that window and just overpower you."

The young reaper blinked, impressed with Jaune's quick and simple strategy. "Wow, that's a lot more detail than a lot of my friends back in Signal noticed."

The knight rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Yeah, my family always said that I had an eye for detail. Sometimes it spoiled some of the comics I read because I saw the little clues peppered in the story, and figured out what was gonna happen, which was pretty cool, then I felt a bit disappointed because I didn't get that feeling of shock and surprise that my friends got when read it. But hey, satisfaction of having a theory confirmed is still pretty cool."

Ruby blinked. Then giggled, before laughing out loud. "Oh, Jaune, that is super nerdy."

Jaune rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well at least I'm not some kinda weapon fanatic."

Ruby gasped, then narrowed her eyes. "Hey, I'm not a fanatic, I just have an appreciation that nobody else seems to have for the weapons that we use. I mean, they're basically like an extended part of us, and everyone just glosses over that fact."

Jaune shrugged. "I wouldn't know, since my weapon is basically a hand-me-down. Still gets the job done, but it lacks the flair I see in everyone else." Jaune hummed as he retrieved his ancestral blade, and sheathing it. "Sensei said he would have something custom made for me, but he wasn't exactly specific with when it would be finished." Jaune tapped his hand against the pommel of his sword. "Maybe soon..."

Ruby bounced over, eyes beaming. "Oh, you're getting a custom weapon?! That sounds great! Is it going to be a gun? Or are you going to get another sword? Or maybe something else?!"

The blonde shrugged again. "All I know is that it's going to be replacing this thing." Jaune pat the gun in its holster, something that had seen only limited use due to the fact that he couldn't exactly just pull the gun out or else he would need to sheathe his sword, which wasn't as easy as it sounded when it was in its shield form. "I _really _need to get another sheathe." Jaune wasn't sure where he was going to make the request, but it felt important.

* * *

Jaune let out a groan, sunlight fading in the window to JNPR's room. He felt exhausted, and not just physically. The reveal of his transcripts was without a doubt the most emotionally draining event that Jaune had gone through so far in his life. Then once everyone got back to Beacon, there was the impulse decision to have some team sparring, where the knight had gone against the young reaper. The young man let out another, smaller, groan, just the thought of more work sending Jaune into despair. So, when his partner walked in with her sword and shield on her back, the armor fitting her perfectly, the knight spoke up. "So, Pyrrha, any reason you're all geared up like that?"

The girl smiled brightly, the joy she was expressing almost being infectious. "Oh, well, since I'm assuming that you haven't had any proper training from anyone in combat schools," Jaune had to resist with every fiber of his being the snort that threatened to come, but he had managed, instead only coughing quietly enough that the redhead failed to notice. "So, I've decided to have personal lessons with you whenever time allows it!"

Jaune thought back to the month of training with his mentor, and nearly laughed. There were days when Grayson pushed him and his body so hard that had nearly collapsed in the middle of a sparring session. But he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth, not when he needed every advantage that he could get his hands on. "You know what? That sounds great."

The redhead beamed, her expression that of someone experiencing the greatest joy possible. "Oh, that's wonderful!" And with that, the champion was gone. The knight rubbed at his face. Well, as long as he didn't push himself too hard too often, the young man would be fine. After all, he had survived his training with Grayson, and look where he was now.

* * *

As Jaune walked up to the roof, he couldn't help but feel as if he had forgotten something very important. He quickly figured out what he forgot once he opened the door, to find his mentor and his partner standing across from each other, eyes glued to one another. The old man glanced to Jaune, and let out a snort. "You know, Miss Nikos, all you had to say was that you wanted to get some one on one training with your leader. There's not really any rules that prohibit this kinda thing."

"I'm sorry if I'm being disrespectful, but I really don't think you have any business being up here. So, if you could go, I would appreciate it." The champion's eyes were hard, the green reminding him of an emerald.

Grayson rolled his eyes. "Funny thing about that statement. Not sure if Mister Arc told you about this yet, but I actually bumped into him about a month before initiation, talked a bit, and I decided that if he was there, I might as well start teaching him. I mean, there really wasn't any reason _not _to. Once the first _actual _day of the year ended, I brought him up here, and decided that every other day we would come up here and train." The huntsman shrugged. "Anyway, enough about that, what're you two going to be doing? Physical prowess, technique, something else?"

The students blinked, and Jaune glanced to Pyrrha, who was frowning. "Actually, I was hoping to go over the basics the the sword. Ease him into it."

Jaune frowned at that. He had assumed that Pyrrha would be jumping to the point where he needed to improve, not go over everything he already knew. Before the blonde could open his mouth and voice his thought, his mentor beat him to it. "Really? Just ignore the fact that he's already at a somewhat competent level, and just start from scratch?" Shaking his head, Grayson let out a sigh. "Listen Pyrrha, I get that you want to help your leader, and that's respectable, but you can't just throw away what he's already learned and start over. That's just detrimental, and a little bit arrogant if you want my honest opinion." The teacher rubbed at his beard for a second, before smiling and nodding. "Alright, since you're both up here, and I'm feeling a bit lazy, how about the two of you have a quick sparring match."

Jaune glanced to Pyrrha, concern about his well-being flaring up. "Uh, Sensei, I'm not sure that's a great idea. I mean, she's the best fighter in our year, to the point that she fights entire teams, and doesn't even get a scratch. And I'm..." Jaune gestured to his body. "Well, you get the idea."

The old man rolled his eyes. "You know, usually I'd tell you that you need confidence, but you're actually a hundred percent right this time. But I gotta see exactly how big the gap between the best and average actually is. So, get ready, because I don't want either of you holding back, just make sure not to fire any shots. I don't wanna hear the students complaining about not being able to sleep in my class."

Pyrrha grasped at one last straw in an attempt to get Grayson to leave. "Shouldn't you be in your office, making lesson plans?"

The huntsman chuckled. "Don't worry, I'm already bullshitting my way through the classes, I don't think anyone's going to notice the difference. Now, get ready, both of you." And so, Jaune had his ass handed to him eight ways from Sunday, and his mentor watched with a grin on his face. The rest of the session proceeded with the teacher throwing helpful tips for Jaune, and calling the champion out for holding back, which happened more than Jaune cared for. After about half an hour, Grayson had moved on from having the two spar, and moved to conditioning, by having the two run around the roof. While it was small, the old man had them run for an hour straight, the knight collapsing near the end. As the old man helped his disciple up, Grayson glanced to Pyrrha. "Alright Nikos, time for sleep. You kids need your rest. I'll make sure he gets back fine. Just have one last thing to tell him."

Jaune could tell that his partner wanted to stay, but he waved her concern away. "It's fine Pyr, I'll get back once I can walk." With his reassurance, the champion had opened the door to the stairs, and with one last glance to Jaune, left. Sighing, the young man looked to his mentor, a sheepish smile on his face. "So, would you believe me if I said that I forgot that tonight was supposed to be-"

Jaune didn't get to finish his sentence, Grayson bringing his hand up and flicking the blonde's forehead faster than the young man could react and bring his aura up. "Kid, you need to tell your friends about this. I get that the transcripts are a lot more serious, so I'm willing to let you choose when to open that can of worms, but not when it comes to _this._" The old man shook his head, and reached into his coat, pulling out a firearm about the size of Jaune's forearm. "I was planning on giving you this as soon as I saw you, but I don't want Pyrrha thinking that I'm playing favorites more than I already am." The gun was obviously a pistol, but to call it a hand cannon would be more fitting. The metal had a stunning silver sheen, and the young man could almost see his reflection in the metal. "Now, this is going to be a hell of a lot stronger than what you're used to with that magnum. It won't hold as many shots either, so make sure you're going to hit what you're aiming at before you pull the trigger."

Jaune took the hand cannon with reverence, his eyes shining. "Grayson, this is... I don't know what to say."

The old man smirked. "Well, 'thank you' would be a pretty good start. This thing wasn't exactly cheap, but I think it was worth every Lien."

Jaune stared at the weapon, and asked quietly. "Does it have a name?"

Grayson's smirk transformed into a grin. "Not yet. Tell me when you think of one. See ya." With that, the teacher waved to his disciple, and left.

* * *

Once at his room, Jaune opened the door to the sight of Ren sleeping peacefully, with Nora standing over him, a black marker in her hand. Looking over to Pyrrha's bed, the knight saw the piece of furniture empty, and at that moment he noticed the sound of the shower pouring water. Looking back to the ginger girl, Jaune spoke up. "So, Nora, what exactly are you doing?"

Nora froze, and Ren stirred, before the other man settled back to sleep. Nora sent Jaune a quick gesture of silence, and went back to doodling on Ren's face. She waved Jaune over to her, and with a sigh, the blonde quietly stepped to the girl's side, getting a better look at Nora's artwork. On Ren's forehead, was the drawing of a rather intricate flower, the level of detail surprising Jaune that it had come from the bubbly girl. When Nora spoke, she was whispering softly, not done with her drawing quiet yet. "Nobody's been pranked yet, so I decided that I'm going to be the first. But, you weren't here, and Pyrrha's in the bathroom, so the only logical action was to wait for Ren to fall asleep, so I could write on his face. No harm done, and the best part is that the marker isn't permanent, so it'll wash off super easy."

Jaune blinked. Well, that explained that, and he couldn't bring himself to do the responsible thing, and ask Nora to wash the marker off, or even stop, and stripped out of his armor, tired to change from his casual clothes, as well as not wanting Nora to see him in his underwear. "Good talk Nora. Night." With a limp wave, Jaune crawled into bed, and drifted off to sleep to the sound of Nora's suppressed giggles.

* * *

That morning, Jaune couldn't help but feel grateful that Beacon made sure the students got breakfast every day that there were classes. The session the previous night had left him tired, and he felt hunger before he actually fell asleep, so he was really only delaying the inevitable. The food he had gotten was gone within a minute, and once he had let out a satisfied sigh, Jaune looked up, to find all of his friends staring. Nora looked amazed, while everyone else had an expression mixed between disbelief and horror. "What?"

Nora squealed loudly. "Fearless Leader, I just got the best idea _ever_! So, we find an eating contest, right?! We enter ourselves in, demolish the competition with our superior eating prowess, and whatever prize they're offering, we split between us."

Everyone that wasn't crazy blinked, and turned their attention to the ginger girl. Yang cleared her throat, and spoke. "Nora, I don't think there're any eating contests you two can enter. Unless the Vytal Festival has one, and I'm not exactly sure on that, I think you're outta luck on that."

Weiss shook her head. "Inane ideas aside," The heiress turned her gaze to the knight, her eyes narrowing just a tad. "Jaune, exactly how much did you eat yesterday?"

The blonde man blinked, unsure what that had to do with his appetite at the moment. "I mean, I ate about as much as I usually do, so the three meals a day, and a few snacks. Nothing special." Jaune frowned, unsure why his first, however brief, crush was asking. "Why? Could it be that you actually _care _about little old me?" The frown turned to a little smirk, the kind that he had seen assholes in movies make whenever they felt they had the upper hand in a conversation.

Weiss rolled her eyes, her pale skin making the small blush on her face more visible than it would with anyone else. "Only about as much as I care about Ruby."

The reaper in question gasped. "Weiss, I didn't know you and Jaune were best friends! Why didn't you tell me?"

Weiss simply sighed, and shook her head, not wanting to give in to Ruby's game.

* * *

**AN: There was a reason I don't have a schedule for this fic, and it's because I have a very bad case of procrastinating for no real reason. Anyway, on to something else. I'm not gonna lie, I'm having a bit of trouble coming up with a name for the gun. I could probably go to Google translate and just see what works with Latin, but I wanna see what you guys come up with, which will probably be better than whatever I would decide on since from what I can see from the reviews and PMs, you all have at least three times as much imagination and creativity than I do. I would appreciate the help.**

**Until next time.**


	11. Investemnt

Jaune couldn't help but smile at his friends' antics. It really made him feel like he belonged, seeing people that knew how he really got into Beacon, and carrying on as if it didn't mean anything, which was probably how they actually felt about the matter. It was just a part of Jaune that really didn't matter, like how Weiss could be haughty, or how Yang made puns that everyone couldn't help but groan at.

"Anyway, Jaune, is there a reason you ate fast enough to make Ruby look like a sloth?" The brawler cocked her head to the side, her eyes curious.

Jaune shrugged. "Well, we trained pretty hard yesterday, and I didn't really eat much before I went to sleep. I guess my body is trying to get me to compensate, or something like that."

Yang let out a hum. "Yeah, I've had that happen to me a few times. It's hard even thinking about food when my muscles are sore enough that I fall asleep as soon as I hit the pillow."

Jaune smiled. "Glad to hear I'm not the only one." Before any more conversation could be had, the bell signalling the start of classes rang out. Getting up with a sigh, the young man made his way to the first class of the day, Grimm Studies. Settling into his seat, Jaune laid his head down onto his arms, and closed his eyes.

Unfortunately, before the young Arc could fall asleep, the familiar voice of his Sensei called out. "Alright, since Port isn't feeling too well I'll be covering for him today. Lucky for all of you, since he didn't leave anything that entails the lesson plan for the day, today is a catch up day. If you got anything you need for the class, get it done. If not, do whatever, just don't make too much noise." The blonde looked up to his mentor, seeing the old man looking at his scroll, a frown on his face. "Alright, I'm gonna step out to take this call. Make sure you all keep it down."

Seeing the man step out of the class, Jaune shrugged, and settled back into a comfortable position, and slept.

As Grayson closed the door and accepted the call, the face of an old friend appearing on the screen. "Good ol' Nick! It's been a while. How's it going?"

Nicholas Arc let out a sigh. "Well, Grayson, normally I wouldn't bother you while you're working, but this is rather important. It's about my son. We haven't heard from him in a long time, and we're getting worried."

Smirking, Grayson let out a small chuckle. "Jaune? Well, I can't exactly make a claim about his mind due to his friends and their antics, but he's been doing really well in Beacon, and he hasn't gotten any injuries that have lasted long enough to be a real concern. Thank his aura for that."

"I-" Nicholas let out a choke noise, before swallowing down, and speaking again. "That's... good to hear. I was worried that he wouldn't exactly measure up to the rest of his peers, considering his weapon."

"Ah, right. That old sword and shield. Honestly, when I saw it, I was surprised that you would give it to him. Last I heard, you were still going out on missions, so I'm sure that it couldn't have been easy getting something with the same quality."

"Well, you know how it is with kids. Have to make sure they come out okay." The fact that Nicholas was rolling with the lies made the teacher shake his head. The blonde Huntsman was the same as always, just going with the flow, and hoping nobody would call him out on his bullshit. Honestly, it would be impressive, if only he had kept that level of bluffing at the poker table.

"Of course. But, I couldn't help but notice that he didn't exactly have much in the long range department, so I went ahead and got him a little gift. You can thank me later. I'm actually kinda excited to see what he calls it."

"Right. So, if you could get him to actually make some calls to his family and let us know himself that he's fine, we would appreciate it."

"Got it. Hey, Nick. Give me a call more often, it's not like I'm in a life or death situation most of the time." It would be a good opportunity for the teacher to grill his old friend about the family.

"I'll make sure to do that. Thanks, Grayson, it's relieving to know Jaune's doing okay over there."

"Anytime, Nick." Ending the call, the old man let out a sigh. Nicholas had completely ran with the story he had been given. The teacher briefly wondered how Juniper was going to react to the news that her son was actually attending Beacon, if Nicholas would tell her that little fact.

* * *

The rest of the day passed with no event of particular note, the blonde having become accustomed to the randomness that seemed to follow his friends, especially when Ruby or Nora were around. Reading through the textbook for Doctor Oobleck's class was something he never enjoyed doing, and keeping his eyes open to take in the words was more of a challenge than his training. Just as his mind began trailing off to other topics, Nora let out a groan from her bed, and let her own text book fall from her hands straight onto her face. "Guys... this is the worst..."

Ren let out a sigh, and shook his head, although a smile was tugging at the edges of his lips. "Nora, it's only been ten minutes."

The words didn't seem to comfort the bubbly girl in any way, instead only serving to further demoralize her, if the muffled groan that came from under the book was any indication. "I know, but it's _so boring_! I mean, why do we need to learn history?"

The following was something that the ginger had brought upon herself, in Jaune's opinion. All in unison, Jaune, Pyrrha, and Ren opened their mouths, and spoke the phrase that Doctor Oobleck seemed to have a fondness for. "Those who fail to learn from history are destined to repeat it."

The book fell from Nora's face, revealing a frightened expression. "Okay, did you three plan that, or was that some weird coincidence?"

The knight shrugged, not quite as fazed as his teammate. "Coincidence."

Nora let out a hum. "I'm watching you. All of you." Jaune shook his head, smiling. Just as he had turned his attention back to the book in his hands, three rapid knocks pounded the door. Nora quickly hopped off of her bed, and opened the door. "Oh, hey guys! What's up?"

From just outside the room, Weiss could be heard. "Library. Study session. Ten minutes." And with those simple instructions, the heiress walked away, footsteps fading quickly and quietly.

Nora peeked her head outside, watching Weiss go before turning her attention to the rest of RWBY. "Uh, what was that about?"

Ruby let out a sigh. "We put off studying for a few days, and Weiss says that we need to catch up or else our grades are gonna drop."

The ginger girl let out a hum. "Well, that kinda sucks. But why is she dragging us along?"

"She said something about making sure we actually study. I'm pretty sure she just doesn't want to admit that she likes it whenever we're all together."

Yang let out a small snort. "Yeah, Ice Queen puts on a chilly front, but she's all warm once you pick up on the little things."

Jaune stretched as he stood, book in hand. "Well, we were studying anyway. No real reason not to come along."

* * *

The library was empty save for the two teams, and a few older students. If it weren't for everyone's flashy wardrobe, it would be impossible to tell the scene apart from a normal college library. As the teams studied and discussed the contents of their books, the knight felt his scroll buzz. Taking it out, Jaune glanced at the message he had received. 'How's my investment coming along?'

Jaune blinked, confused for all of about three seconds, before he remembered that night back in Vale, the criminal handing over the transcripts with an arrogant smirk, saying it was free, and he was making an investment in the young man. Narrowing his eyes, the blonde quickly sent back a message. 'I don't owe you anything'

'Except you do, because if it weren't for me, you wouldn't be off playing hero, would you?'

Jaune grit his teeth. It really didn't help that the criminal he was messaging was right. 'What do you want?'

'Better. Make sure you remember this, because I want this entire exchange deleted in ten minutes. In about an hour, come meet me at the Starlight Cafe, and make sure you're by yourself.' Jaune wanted desperately to tell the guy to piss off, but the forger could easily expose the knight for the fraud that he was, and while Grayson had said that it didn't matter since he passed initiation, the damage to his reputation would still be sizable.

"Jaune? What's wrong?" The sound of Pyrrha's voice reminded the knight that he wasn't exactly alone. Looking up from his scroll, he saw that his friends had shifted their attention from the textbooks to him.

Swallowing thickly, Jaune tried his best to play it off like nothing important. "Nothing's wrong. Just got kinda focused on what Sensei was telling me."

Everyone glanced around the table, something that Jaune had picked up as them knowing he saw lying, but not wanting to call him out on it. Usually someone would sigh, and say something along the lines of 'If you say so.' but this time, it looked like they weren't going to let it lie. Yang rolled her eyes. "Jaune, I don't know if anyone told you, but you're not exactly the best when it comes to lying. It kinda reminds me of when Ruby would literally get caught with her hand in the cookie jar."

"Yang!"

The older sister rolled her eyes with a smirk. "But yeah. Something's up."

Jaune frowned. It wasn't that Yang was exactly wrong, but it wasn't completely accurate either. He had gotten into Beacon on forged transcripts after all. Not that he was exactly proud of that fact. Shaking his head, the knight waved away their concerns, "Just some extra training with Sensei is- Pyrrha!"

As he was speaking, the champion had snatched the scroll out of his hand, a guilty look on her face. "I'm sorry." She handed the scroll to the heiress opposite of her. "It's just... I really don't want you feeling like you have to prove anything to us."

As Weiss read the short conversation, her gaze returned to Jaune, sharp and cold. "Arc, what is this?"

"Uh..."

"Because it looks like whoever helped you with your transcripts is looking for a favor." The matter-of-fact tone that she used caused Jaune to wince, but before he could even try to defend himself, she passed the scroll to Ruby, which sealed his fate.

The reaper's face fell as she took in the words on the screen, "Jaune, you know that we'll help you, right?"

"Of course. I just don't want you getting caught up my mess. I-"

"No." It was a simple response, but the determination that she said it with spoke so much more. Silver eyes peered into blue, and part of him knew that he would have to start counting on his friends more, otherwise he might just end up dead. "We're coming with you."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" The question was raised by Blake, a frown on her face.

"Blake, are you saying that we should let Jaune actually go on his own?"

"No, not at all. I just don't think that seven people following Jaune is going to go well with whoever he's meeting."

Ruby opened her mouth, before quickly shutting it. The brawler of the group let out a low growl in frustration. "So, we only let one of us go with him?"

The reserved girl nodded. "It's not good, but if we scare off this guy, then who knows what'll happen to Jaune?"

The knight frowned. As much as he hated to admit it, even if it was to himself, they had a point. As the teens glanced to each other, the question was on everyone's mind, but it took a few moments to ask. "Alright, so who's going to be keeping an eye on me?"

"Well, Yang and Nora are out for obvious reasons." Both girls mentioned opened their mouths to argue with Blake, before closing them, and begrudgingly nodding. "Pyrrha and Weiss are too recognizable, and they might get swarmed by people, so that leaves Ren, Ruby, or me."

Jaune looked between his three friends. Ruby wasn't exactly known for her stealth, and her outfit stood out in a crowd, so while he trusted her, this wasn't exactly the ideal situation for her. Ren didn't have much of a presence to him, and the knight had actually gotten used to the quiet man coming from seemingly nowhere, the only indication he was there being

But not even Ren could compare to Blake's absolutely superb skills in stealth. During the times he had worked with her in class and the one time he had been teamed up with her on the weekend, he had to constantly look back to make sure she hadn't somehow fallen behind. During combat, she was like a ghost, there one moment, and somewhere completely different the next.

With those facts in mind, it wasn't too difficult to decide on a partner for this situation. "Alright Blake, I guess if things start to look bad, you can rush in and make sure I don't get killed." The girl nodded, a small frown on her usually stoic face.

* * *

As he had been instructed, Jaune had deleted the conversation on his scroll, and an hour later, he and Blake were on a bullhead heading to Vale, casually clothed. The knight kept his eyes closed, trying to figure out what the forger could want from him, something that helped a bit to distract himself from the rolling contents in his stomach.

Once the aircraft touched solid ground, the young man let out a heavy sigh, noting that he didn't feel the bile rising in his throat this time. Maybe he was getting used to the feeling of flying. Turning to Blake, Jaune gave her a shaky smile. "Well, I have a meeting to attend. Here's hoping the cafe has some good coffee."

With that, Jaune stepped forward, ready to face the music, before being stopped in his tracks by the girl's quiet words. "Just... Be careful, okay?"

Chuckling, the knight didn't even glance back, "I will. Even if something goes wrong, I know I'm in good hands." Then Jaune quickly walked away, looking at his scroll for directions to the Starlight Cafe. It took a few minutes, but he found the sign advertising the establishment. Heading inside, the young man scanned the tables, finding the orange hair that had stuck in his mind from his one and only meting with the criminal. Walking to the man sitting at the empty table, Jaune gave a small wave. "Hey, mind if I sit here?"

The man grinned, "By all means, go right ahead." The words confirmed that this was the one that had helped him with the forged transcripts. The criminal wasn't even recognizable, with his hair swept back, along with the hat nowhere to be seen. His clothes were definitely a lot more unassuming, although the most notable change were his eyes, once a dark green, now a shimmering blue.

Jaune sat down, his heart hammering in his chest. He could try to draw out the conversation, make sure that Blake had him in her sight, or he could try to get this over with as soon as possible, and get away from the criminal quickly. "So, I'm here. What now?"

The criminal's grin was dialed down a few notches, to a smug smile. "Now, you listen to what I have to say. First off, congratulations on getting into Beacon. I'm sure you worked hard to get there." Jaune glared at the criminal, even if he had been partially right. "You're finally going to become the big hero you've always wanted to be. Good on ya. Except it takes more than swinging your sword at a bunch of monsters to be one of the good guys. Sometimes you gotta make the hard choices, like breaking the law to uphold the greater good." The criminal paused, before shaking his head. "Look, the point is; you aren't perfect, hell, you aren't even where you actually belong. But that doesn't matter."

At this point, the young man's patience for the criminal was running out. "Just get to the point already."

The man chuckled. "Alright. It's like this: Usually I work alone if I can help it, but recently someone made an offer I couldn't really refuse, so now I'm on a bunch of errands that are nothing but a pain in the ass. Then, I made an off-hand remark about helping you with those papers, and suddenly they're interested in you. So now, they want your help with some things. You don't even have to do any heavy lifting." The way he had spoke made it clear that the criminal didn't exactly enjoy his position under someone else, but kept taking orders regardless.

"And what if I just walk away, and ignore everything you tell me to do?" It wasn't the smart decision, and he knew it wasn't going to be the one he would make, but it was better to make it look like he had power in the situation.

The criminal scoffed. "Then the headmaster is going to get a tip from a concerned citizen that one of their students is in league with a well known criminal, even had their transcripts forged, and, sure, it won't exactly get them expelled since the student in question passed initiation, but it'll still drag their reputation through the mud, make it so that nobody wants to be associated with them. Then, my boss would burn you alive."

Well, that certainly didn't fill the blonde with confidence. "Fine. Just..." Jaune rubbed at his face, and sighed. "Just tell me what to do."

The grin came back with a vengeance. "Good to see you're thinking clearly. Alright, we'll give you an easy one to start things off. Make a list of the strongest students in each year, and message that list to me."

Jaune frowned. That wasn't exactly what he was expecting from the man in front of him. "Alright, I can get that to you in a few days."

The criminal nodded. "Alright. Glad we could come to an understanding." And with that, the man got up from the table, and left.

Jaune let out a heavy breath, rubbing at his face. "Okay, on the bright side, I'm not dead..."

As he thought about how the meeting could have gone, a waitress with bubble pink hair walked up to the table the knight was occupying. "Hello, what can I get for you?"

Part of him didn't want to order anything, but he pushed that part aside for some soothing warm drink. "Yeah, can I get a cup of coffee, with cream and sugar?"

The waitress nodded. "Anything else?"

"Just the coffee, thanks." He wasn't sure if he couldn't stomach any food at the moment.

"Alright. I'll be right back with that."

Nodding to the girl, Jaune leaned back into his seat as she walked off. Now that he wasn't face to face with the criminal, the blonde fished his scroll out of his pocket, and dialed Blake. After the third ring, she answered. "Well, what did he want?"

Jaune ran a hand through his hair. "Well, right now it's nothing too big, just a list of the strong students from each year. Not sure what he could possibly want with that, but he basically blackmailed me to do it, along with actually telling me that his boss would burn me alive."

"His boss?"

"Yeah, didn't give any details, not even gender. Just said they would burn me alive if I didn't go along with what he wanted." Suddenly, the call dropped, confusing the blonde for a few seconds, before the reserved girl slid into a seat next to him.

"So, what now?"

Sighing, Jaune shrugged. "Now? I'm waiting for my coffee. Need something to calm me down after that whole conversation."

"So to calm down, you're going to drink something with caffeine?" Raising a brow, Blake raised a point that Jaune couldn't exactly argue against.

So, he shrugged, "Call it a personal preference. Then, once we get back to Beacon, I need to have a conversation with Sensei about this." Tapping his finger against the table they were seated at, a thought suddenly popped into his mind. "Actually, I don't know why I didn't tell him about this..."

"Jaune, he's a teacher, I don't think that telling him about your transcripts is exactly a good idea."

The blonde scratched the back of his neck, a sheepish smile on his face. "Yeah, see, the thing is... He already knows. In fact, I kinda told him just after he decided to start training me..." The blank stare he received said it all. "Yeah, probably should have mentioned that when I told everyone, huh?" Looking around the cafe, the knight briefly wondered how long it could take to make a cup of coffee.

Right as Blake was about to verbally tear him a new asshole, the waitress came from seemingly nowhere, a single mug on a tray, saving Jaune for the moment. "Sorry for the wait. Would you like anything, miss?"

The reserved girl shook her head. "No thanks. I'm just waiting on him." The waitress nodded, and gave the two a knowing smile.

The blonde grabbed the mug, and took a sip, pleasantly surprised to find the coffee was actually pretty decent. "Huh, this is better than I was expecting."

* * *

After being told off for not mentioning the fact that one of the teachers knew about his transcripts, and it being the one that trained him on top of that, the two returned to Beacon after a call letting their friends know that everything had gone relatively well. Then, the teams had decided to gather in Team JNPR's room, the top not exactly something to discuss out in the open.

Weiss shook her head, pinching her nose. "So, you just happened to forget to mention that Professor Hunt knew about your situation?"

Pyrrha let out a hum. "Well, it explains why he was giving Jaune extra training." Everyone turned to the champion, confused. "Oh, right. Well, I offered to give Jaune some training, just the two of us, and decided that the rooftop was good for that, but when I got there, Professor Hunt was already there."

Ren furrowed his brow. "Jaune, you're not over-training, are you?"

The blonde shrugged. "Well, I haven't collapsed in the past few weeks, so I don't _think so._" The worried glances were both relieving and annoying. Sure, it wasn't great to have so many people thinking he couldn't take care of himself, but considering the amount of training he was going through to catch up to them, he couldn't really argue against it. "But if you're that worried about me, I'll take more time to rest up."

The heiress nodded, a smile on her face. "Good. Now, see if you can't get in touch Professor Hunt, and explain the situation to him."

Nodding, the knight pulled out his scroll, and sent a quick message. 'Hey, so remember when I mentioned about the guy that helped with my transcripts saying something about an investment?'

The response was quick and to the point. 'Where are you now?'

'My team's room.'

'Be there in five minutes.' The blonde smiled, and pocketed the scroll. "Alright, so, he's on his way."

And, true to his word, the old huntsman was knocking on the door around five minutes later. As he was let in to see both teams present, he sighed. "Jaune, how bad did you fuck up?"

* * *

**AN: Guess who's still alive?**

**But yeah, sorry for the long wait. Got the beginning in this chapter done, got stuck, lost motivation, then managed to trudge through to a fourth of the chapter, then took a week to get to the halfway point, then plowed through to the end today.**

**Good thing I don't make any promises. Then I would look like an asshole that can't keep a schedule. Instead I'm an asshole that makes you wait for months with zero idea of when the next chapter will be.**

**Love you all for putting up with me. Until next time.**


	12. Hindsight

The old man wasn't sure whether to be proud for the kid because he told his friends the truth, or smack him upside the head because he actually agreed to help Roman goddamn Torchwick. Grayson eventually decided on the latter, smiling at the sound of his hand hitting the boy's head. "Jaune, know that I say this because I care about you: Next time, don't be a dumbass and let me know _before _you actually meet the guy." Heaving out a sigh, the teacher ran a hand through his hair. "So, he wants to know the strongest students. Think you can fish any information outta him?"

The blonde shrugged. "Maybe? I'm not exactly in my element here."

The old man let out a snort. "Yeah, can't exactly cut or shoot your way out of this one. Well, I should be able to help you with that list, but don't expect me to bail you out of every problem you get." Turning and opening the door, the teacher sent a glance to the students, before smiling. "Good to see that you told them." Closing the door, Grayson breathed in deeply, and began walking, his mind already trying to figure out what Roman could want with a list of students. Maybe the thief was thinking for the future, figuring out who to watch out for years from now. But he had been doing fine, even with the added attention on him.

Then there was the thought that Grayson really hoped was just him overthinking the situation. Why bother getting a list of students, unless someone was going to get into the school? With the Festival coming up, they would be hard-pressed to personally check each and every student. Shaking his head, the old man decided that he would need to run this by Ozpin, and if it came to it, Glynda. The headmaster wouldn't let forgeries get past him, so he let Jaune in, and the boy had solidified his place in the school once he passed initiation, so the old man wasn't exactly worried about his apprentice's place in Beacon. But his coworker was another story, especially since she had that stick up her ass. Snorting at the thought, Grayson considered proposing a mandatory fun night for the staff of Beacon to Ozpin. Maybe that would help with all the craziness going on around Vale.

Getting into the elevator to Ozpin's office, the old man idly wondered where the staff could go. It wasn't like there were only five people working at Beacon. Hm, maybe if they split up the staff based on what type of job they did, like the cooks and custodians, and sent the groups to places close to each other. It would take a bit of setting up, and a whole lot of coordinating between the whole staff, but it didn't seem impossible, so that was good.

Bringing his thoughts back to more important matters, Grayson idly tapped his foot against the floor of the elevator, part of him wondering who decided to put the headmaster's office in a tower so damn tall. Honestly, it was almost impractical with how long it took for anyone to get to Ozpin. Thankfully, he didn't have much longer to wait, and soon, with a faint ding, the doors opened.

Ozpin looked up from a stack of papers, and smiled upon seeing the old man. "Ah, Grayson, wonderful timing. As much as I try to present myself as someone that keeps cool under any situation, it seems that paperwork is something that will always put me at wits end." A short chuckle was shared between the two. "So, what's on your mind?"

Taking a seat, Grayson brought his hands together, fingers tapping against each other. "Oz, you remember Jaune, right?"

"Ah, yes. Young Arc is improving greatly in combat prowess. True, his physical ability is around average, I don't think I've seen someone with such a tactical mind in years."

Smiling, the teacher nodded. "That's true. But it's not about how's he's doing in school that I wanna talk about. Quick question, you read his transcripts, right? Notice how they mentioned him being at the top of his class, but he isn't showing abilities like he should?"

"Oh, I've noticed. Glynda has as well, and she's doubts their authenticity." The headmaster fell silent for a moment, and reached for the coffee mug on the table, taking a sip. "Why exactly is it that you've brought this topic of conversation up?"

The old man sighed, "Oz, we both know those papers are about as real as the possibility of me becoming a clown for birthday parties." The headmaster's eyes narrowed, and opened his mouth, but before he could get a word in, Grayson held up his hands, and quickly cut in. "Look, I'm not telling you to throw him out. It's not like you could anyway, since, y'know, that whole initiation law. Kinda glad for it, really." Shaking his head, the teacher couldn't help but feel he could have gone about this better. "Look, I'm gonna be real with you here, I've known about those fakes for a couple of months now, ever since I picked him up and decided to train him."

At this point, Ozpin seemed to have lost his patience, and butted in. "Grayson, can you please get to the point?"

"Right. See, the thing is, he got those papers because of Torchwick, and the scumbag is basically using that for favors. Called it in today, in fact. Oz, Roman wants a list of the strongest students in the school. Now, I'm not exactly capable of knowing what people are thinking, so I don't know what he could possibly get from this, but since we can trust each other, I decided to let you know. I already got a couple theories, but since you're the one actually in charge, you might be able to pick up on something I missed."

The headmaster breathed in heavily, closing his eyes. After a moment or two, Ozpin opened his eyes, and motioned to Grayson. "Please, share these theories."

Nodding, the old man began. "Well, he might be trying to prepare for whoever might be going after him in a few years, but he's been doing fine on his own, and he usually kept himself under the radar. Then there's the possibility that he's trying to get someone into the school, but there's no reason for him to be doing that." No matter how he looked at it, there just wasn't any way for Roman to be benefiting from this whole thing.

"And you're sure that Torchwick is acting alone in this?"

Blinking, Grayson thought back to what Jaune had told him. Snapping his fingers, the old man shook his head. "Damn, I really am getting old. No, he's got some big boss now, but that's all Jaune could get. Threatened that whoever was backing Roman would burn the kid alive if he didn't do what they asked." Sighing, Grayson wondered if that piece of information would even matter in the end. Sure, it told them that Roman wasn't calling the shots, but what good was that when they had no idea who they were dealing with? "So, how's this going to happen?"

"Firstly, we can't exactly give them a list of our strongest students, but we can't hand them nothing."

"So, we give them a list of the worst students?" The idea wasn't awful, but it wasn't great either.

"Not quite. Give me time, and I should be able to come up with a list that should serve to satisfy Roman and his employer. You have my thanks for bringing this to my attention."

"As if anyone here would just let this happen without doing anything about it." The thought of that happening was actually upsetting, especially since he knew how much his fellow teachers cared about these students. "Well, that's all I got, but I'll be sure to update you on the situation." Standing from his seat, the old man let out a heavy breath.

As the elevator doors opened, Grayson gave his boss a mix of a salute and a wave, not bothering to turn until he pressed the button to the ground floor. With another ding, the doors closed.

* * *

Jaune couldn't help but begin to feel a certain sense of dread that he had come to call his 'Gray Sense'. It usually crept up on him a minute or two before Sensei appeared, and dragged him to either the forest, or some other vacant section of the school for what would essentially be surprise training. It didn't happen often, but enough times for him to know better than to try to get out of it.

And, just as his sense had predicted, Jaune was pulled from his team to the outskirts of the Emerald Forest. The apprentice wasn't sure what the two would be doing for the surprise lesson, but then again, it was usually something that left him tired and in need of a quick nap.

"Alright kid, since your decisions have come to bite you in the ass, I think it's time we drop the whole 'fair' thing."

"I'm sorry, what?" It wasn't exactly new that Grayson could get a little sadistic and decide to cut loose, and with the knight's Aura, he could whale on the kid for a good minute, and it usually ended with a half-assed lesson on not being able to win every fight. But if that was supposed to be fair, then what exactly counted as 'unfair'?

"I've been giving you little breaks, made sure there was an opening for you to exploit, even pulled a punch or two." Oh dear gods Grayson was going to actually kill him. "But since you're doing favors for some petty criminal, they're going to drop you as soon as you're not useful anymore. And they aren't even going to let you know when that happens. Since I'm responsible for you, I gotta make sure you don't get killed in less than a second."

"Okay, so what are-" That was all the knight was able to get out before his teacher rocketed toward him, barely able to get his aura up before getting clotheslined, feet lurching up and off of the ground. Disoriented, Jaune couldn't really do anything until he hit the ground, and even then it wasn't exactly as easy as rolling over and getting to his feet.

No, Grayson wasn't taking it easy on his apprentice, and once he had knocked the blonde down, he pivoted around, brought his leg back, and let loose a savage kick straight to the stomach. The blow launched the young man off the ground, away from his teacher, and while Jaune did his best to brace himself, it didn't do him any favors as he hit the ground, rolling to a stop. The kick had sent him a fair distance, something Jaune noted as he managed to get to a kneeling position before he saw Grayson closing that distance. Tensing his leg, Jaune figured he had one shot to pull his next action off, and as his mentor neared, he lunged, aiming to use the teacher's momentum against him.

As Jaune crashed into Grayson, the old man grunted out as he crashed to the ground, his apprentice getting the upper hand for the moment. Once the old man was flat on his back, Jaune quickly scrambled on top of his mentor, and began to let loose blow after blow down onto Grayson. As the old man grit his teeth and held his arms in front of his face, he briefly wondered how much stronger the strikes would have been if the knight had received training. Maybe strong enough to power through his guard, but for now, the teacher was able to keep his apprentice from getting through his defense.

Not one to just lay there and take unneeded punishment, the old man quickly shot an arm away, scooping up whatever dirt he could, and flung it into the young man's face. It didn't exactly blind him, but it was surprising enough for Grayson to quickly slug Jaune across the jaw, and buck up, flinging the knight off and away. Getting to his feet, Jaune was met with his mentor's steely gaze, and a fist to the throat. His aura had thankfully absorbed most of the impact, but the force of the punch was great enough that it had sent him into a coughing fit, gasping for breath between coughs.

Thankfully, it seemed that Grayson had his fill of torturing the young man. Letting out a heavy breath, the old man calmly walked over to the knight still coughing, and placed a hand on the young man's back, offering moral support. "Well, you didn't get completely trounced, so that's a pretty decent start. Now all we gotta do is mix this with our regular training, and you might just catch up with your friends by the end of the year." As much as the words stung, Jaune couldn't exactly argue against them. Part of it was because it was true, but the coughing wasn't helping either. "Alright, once you're good, we'll have another go."

Jaune would have whimpered if he could.

* * *

Collapsing onto his bed, Jaune nearly lost consciousness immediately. The only thing that kept him from passing out was the worried voice of his partner. She was saying something that his muddled mind couldn't quite figure out, so he let out a grunt, the sound muffled by the pillow.

"-ne?" Whatever Pyrrha was saying was getting a bit clearer, but still too faint and muddled to really mean anything. "-ne? A- -ou -ay?"

Using what little strength his body still had, the young man turned his body enough to look at his partner. "S'rry, wha?" Jeez, even talking took more effort than it really should have.

Thankfully, the new position made Pyrrha's words more comprehensible. "Jaune, what happened?" He could practically see the concern radiating from her body.

The blonde was too tired to give her more than the simple and vague, "Training." It wasn't much, but it was enough to cause his team to furrow their brows.

Ren was the one to voice his displeasure. "_More _training? Jaune, when was the last time you just took a day to relax?"

The leader thought back, something that took longer than it should have, for multiple reasons. "Ab't a week 'go."

His friends looked to each other, and with a wordless conversation passing between them, they all nodded, and turned their attention back to Jaune. Before Ren or Pyrrha could open their mouths, Nora made the suggestion. "Hey, Fearless Leader, think you could, I dunno, just sit back and de-stress tomorrow?"

Jaune nodded, just wanting to pass out for half a day. "Mmm..." Keeping his eyes open was starting to get too difficult, so the young man stopped, and in almost immediately drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Waking up brought pain. It wasn't the worst pain he had felt, but it was persistent, and it was made worse as soon as he moved. Groaning, the blonde sat up, finding the room empty. Blinking groggily, Jaune glanced to the clock on the dresser, and tried his best to get out of bed once he saw that it was already time for lunch. His body was screaming, telling him to stop, and he did his best to ignore it. Unfortunately, his best just happened to send him tumbling out of bed, hitting the floor face first.

Hissing between clenched teeth, Jaune was able to get to his knees thanks to using the bed as support. Damn, he could barely move. Crawling back up to his bed, Jaune reached for his scroll, and sent a quick message to his partner. 'hey, any reason you didn't wake me up?'

The response took a minute, but thankfully it was short. 'Good afternoon. We wanted to make sure you would take the day off.'

Looking up, Jaune could faintly remember something like that being said before he passed out. 'right, kinda forgot about that. good thing you did, cause moving really hurts.'

'That's what happens when you overwork yourself. I hope this will be the only time it happens.'

'yeah, me too. i've only been awake for five minutes and i'm not looking forward to having to get out of bed for food.'

'Don't worry, Ren and I will be sure to get you something to eat.'

'thanks Pyr. i'll let you focus on lunch, or whatever you were doing.'

'See you later, Jaune.' Smiling, the blonde closed the message, and brought up one of the games he had installed for the scroll. It was a clicker game, something that existed only to help the time pass by, something he desperately needed.

* * *

Looking among the students, Grayson tapped his foot against the ground, wondering where exactly his apprentice could be. Five minutes into the class, and all the stragglers had showed up. Except for Jaune. Letting out a hum, the teacher began sending students into the forest one by one, handing each student a paper with another student's name on it, giving them specific targets to hunt down.

"Valkyrie. A quick word." The bubbly girl nodded, and quickly skipped off to the side, following the teacher. Quietly, the old man asked. "Where's Jaune? Not like him to take a day off for no reason."

"Oh, well, you see, he came back last night really tired. So, we decided to make him take a resting day. Good thing too, cause Pyrrha got a message from him saying that it really hurt to move."

The old man sighed. "Right. Well, make sure he doesn't push himself then." Reaching into his pocket, he handed Nora the first slip of paper he had touched. As her eyes read the name, a grin made its way onto her face, followed by a giggle that nearly caused the man to shudder.

"Thanks! Seeya!" Grayson wondered if he had just condemned Nora's partner to a fate that would make one wish for death. Oh well, it probably wasn't anything to be seriously concerned for. Feeling his scroll buzz, the old man flicked it out, seeing Ozpin had sent him a message.

'I have that list taken care of. Make sure to pick it up at your earliest convenience.'

Letting out a hum, the teacher glanced to the closest student that had yet to be sent to the forest. "Oi!" The student flinched, and turned to the teacher with a panicked look. "Calm down. I gotta pick something up from the headmaster." Taking the few pieces of paper left from his pocket, he handed them to the student. "Hand them out."

With that, the man began walked off, leaving the students unattended. Sure, Glynda and Oz would probably tell him that it was irresponsible to do so, but he trusted them not to do anything stupid. They were hunters in training, not toddlers.

Eventually making his way to the elevator, the old man idly tapped his foot against the floor the ride up, resisting the urge to take out his scroll and check just how long it was taking. As the doors opened, Grayson almost cursed. Glynda turned, a frowning. "Professor Hunt, shouldn't you be teaching?"

The man shrugged. "Eh, the kids can take care of themselves for an hour. It's not like they're going to be fucking like rabbits when I get back. Besides, Oz has some paper for me." As much as he didn't want to be near Glynda at the moment, Grayson walked to the desk Ozpin was sitting in, arms crossed.

Sighing, the headmaster opened a drawer, and pulled out a single sheet of paper, and pushed it across the surface of the desk to Grayson. "You know, when I said 'at your earliest convenience' I didn't mean right now."

Grayson shrugged again. "Eh. Honestly, I wasn't exactly in the middle of anything important. The students are hunting each other down, so there wasn't really any reason for me to stick around."

Glynda narrowed her eyes at the man. "And why _exactly _are they hunting each other down?"

"What? You think they won't have to chase someone down in their career? I'm teaching them valuable skills that'll be useful. Just like how we're teaching them to fight against people, even though the main problem they're gonna be dealing with is the Grimm." Rolling his eyes, the man picked up the piece of paper, folded it twice, and pocketed it.

Glynda glanced to the headmaster, and sighed. "We'll continue this conversation later."

Grayson sighed as he was accompanied to the elevator. Great, just what he needed. Smirking, the man raised a brow to his coworker. "You know, if you wanted to spend some time with me, all you had to do was ask."

"Grayson, don't even try. Just what is on that paper that was so important that you dropped torturing your students to get it?" The doors closed, and the elevator began to descend.

"Just a list of some students. Nothing to worry about." The blonde narrowed her eyes. Cursing himself for telling her the most suspicious thing that came to mind, Grayson combed through things he could say that would turn the woman's interest away from him.

"Usually when someone says it's nothing to worry about, it's exactly that. And I thought you trusted me."

The man breathed in deeply. "You _know _I trust you. Besides, if the list had any important information, Oz would have let you seen it. He didn't because it wasn't worth mentioning."

"Then it wouldn't hurt to let me look at it, would it?" The woman smiled.

Gritting his teeth, Grayson dropped any notion of subtlety, and calmly spoke. "Hey Glynda, how about you _do me a favor_, and just drop it?" He was sure he would regret the decision in time, but right now, he just wanted to get off of the elevator.

The woman breathed in deeply, and turned her gaze to the elevator door. "Fine..."

The rest of the ride was spent in silence.

* * *

Jaune vaguely heard the door open, but he was too focused on getting his numbers higher to really say anything other than a standard greeting. No, he was tapping against his scroll like his life depended on him, pain in his arm be damned. "C'mon..."

Thankfully, the young man was saved from himself when the scroll was plucked from his hands, and tossed onto an empty bed by Nora. "Okay, that's enough of that! So, we couldn't get you anything too great, but it's better than nothing, so eat up!" With no warning whatsoever, a to-go box places in his lap, with the energetic girl gesturing him to open and see for himself what they had gotten for him.

Opening the box, and seeing the large burger in front of him made his stomach growl, quite loudly. The blonde couldn't help himself, and quickly devoured the thing, not caring in the slightest that it had cooled down. It wasn't exactly a clean process, and the blonde had soaked his hands in the juices of the burger in his haste to get something in his stomach. Glancing to his soaked hands, the knight let out a sheepish chuckle. "Uh, could someone get me a towel or something?"


End file.
